


all their words for glory always sounded empty

by 5sexualhomos



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Am traveling right now and service is spotty, Angst, Fairy!Louis, Fluff, Human!Harry, M/M, Magic, Minor Character Death, Miscommunication, No Smut, Roommates, Royalty, Urban Fantasy, hidden identity, royal!louis, will take everything else later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 22:07:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19049395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5sexualhomos/pseuds/5sexualhomos
Summary: Due to his overprotective father, Pince Louis of the fairies has never left Faefield. When he finally gets the chance to go out into the world, he must keep his identity a secret, which shouldn’t be a problem.That is, until he meets his roommate Harry.





	all their words for glory always sounded empty

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god I cannot belilive this is done. It’s been a crazy ride and is also the longest thing I’ve written and I’m so excited to share all of this with you guys. 
> 
> Shoutout to my amazing betas, Lynda and Roni, I honestly would not have been able to finish this without them. Both of you are amazing and so supportive and put up with my procrastinating ass for much longer than I would have had the patience for. Thank you for everything <3
> 
> Also thank you to neon—diamonds on tumblr for the amazing artwork for this piece and also putting up with me through the process. 
> 
> Hope you guys love this fic as much as I do. Enjoy!

“It’s time to wake up, Your Highness.” 

Louis’ room is suddenly flooded with sunlight. He doesn’t like it. He rolls onto his stomach and buries his head into his pillow.

“Five more minutes,” Louis groans. He doesn’t move, he’s enjoying the comfort of his bed entirely too much.

“I’m afraid your father wants to see you at breakfast in twenty minutes.” Louis can hear the distant sound of the shower being started for him. 

“Tell him I’m not hungry.”

“Get the fuck up, you lazy bastard,” Zayn replies, pulling the duvet off Louis with a flourish. Louis lets out a dramatic yelp. 

“You know I could have you arrested for treason for a comment like that.” Louis sits up slowly and yawns exaggeratedly, stretching his arms out as well. He might be forced to get out of bed, but he’ll take his sweet fucking time doing it. 

“You go right ahead and try. I don’t think the King would allow it though seeing as I’m literally the only fairy left that can tolerate you.” 

“That’s not totally true,” Louis says indignantly. He lets his wings unfurl and flaps them a few times. He’s always wished his wings were a bit smaller, but since he’s royalty they have to be monstrously large and take up almost the whole of his back. They’re a distractingling bright blue and green, iridescent butterfly-esque things. He wishes they were more like Zayn’s, moderately sized with no ostentatious color screaming ‘Look at me, look at me!’.

“They like me, I’m simply ‘too much to handle for more than an hour at a time without causing extreme emotional distress’.” 

“Which one of your numerous nanny’s put that on their resignation letter?” Zayn rifles through Louis’ closet and grabs a dark green tunic and matching pants.

“Sasha. Poor thing, I was a lot more mischievous fifteen years ago.” Louis gets out of bed and pads to the bathroom. He checks the temperature of the water with his hand before stepping under the stream of water. 

“You were more than mischievous. I think you nearly sent her to the hospital after your last stunt,” Zayn calls from the other room. Louis taps the tablet in wall and selects his Alternative playlist. 

The final straw for Sasha was when Louis faked a broken leg. Normally he wouldn’t have gotten away with a trick like that, but he had used a bit of magic to confuse his nanny. The instant Sasha ran to get a medic, Louis hopped up from the castle floor and jumped out a window, from the third floor of the massive treehouse/castle he lived in.

He zipped through the forest, avoiding the other treehouses. He was only a few meters away from the gate which led to the heart of Avelan, when his entire body froze. Louis willed his body to move, but the spell kept him completely immobile. He had been so focused on his goal of crossing the wall that he completely forgot to keep an eye out for royal guards. 

He was carried back to his home, paraded through the center of Faefield for all his subjects to see. Many of them with phones pointed in his direction. 

Louis had been put under strict watch after that, with a pair of soldiers within a few meters at all times. The 24/7 guard watch had stuck around for an entire year, which was extremely excessive in Louis’ eyes, but he should have been used to it even then. For as long as Louis can remember his father has always been unusually concerned with Louis’ wellbeing. Louis knows that sounds like he’s just being a spoiled prince who thinks he should be able to do anything without consequence, but his father has always just been extremely strict. 

Despite being the crown prince, and future ruler of Faefield, as well as the ambassador for all fairies, he has never once left the confines of the town. He’s nearly fifty, for fuck’s sake! At this rate he’ll be nearly two hundred by the time he finally gets to see beyond the gates. Fairies age at a much slower rate than humans, but not as slow a elves, who have a lifespan of about 500 years. Fairies live anywhere from two to three hundred years, and incredibly healthy humans can live to 150. 

The only things he knows about Avelan are what he’s learned from other people. His father has always warned him against the evil creatures that lurk beyond the wall, the worst of which by far are the humans. The King has always called them cruel and vicious, even to their own kind; they only care about themselves and would kill you without warning. The first time Louis heard this from his father he cried uncontrollably for an hour, and had nightmares about humans killing him for months. 

Through the years, his tutors have taught him the history of Avelan. Over 500 years ago, the end of The Great War brought peace to Avelan, and helped to unite all the species together. Before The War, Avelan was named London. It was mostly inhabited by humans, or rather they claimed most of the city as their own, forcing the other species to the edges of the city. 

Queen Rosephira, of the elves was enraged that the humans found themselves superior to all the other creatures and declared war on all of humanity. Eventually King Torsan of the Fairies stepped in and proposed that every species working together to create a peaceful place that they could live would be the best for all species. Each species would keep their own government, and each ruler would also be the Ambassador for their kind in the Avelan Government. 

It wasn’t a perfect society at first. There was lots of violence, and prejudice against certain species. Although, Avelan was meant for everyone to live together, the different species still tended to stick together and live in the same neighborhoods. The older generations still have a great amount of distrust for other species. But younger ones, like Louis, venture out and don’t hold the same hate their parents and grandparents do. Not that Louis has actually experience this, but he’s heard plenty.

 

His knowledge of the modern world comes from Zayn who will sometimes sneak him magazines and sweets. Zayn has untethered access to Avelan, like most do in Faefield, apart from Louis and anyone else with incredibly overbearing parents who are afraid of anything ever happening to their child, even growing up. 

 

Louis adjusts his collar as he strides down the corridor to the formal dining room with Zayn right behind him. Normally when Louis and his father have a meal together it’s in the much smaller dining room directly off the kitchen. The formal dining room is normally reserved for when they are hosting guests. The only real difference is the size of the tables. The formal dining room can sit up to twelve while the usual one only seats four. 

The fact that Louis’ father decided on breakfast in the formal room could mean anything, and none of the things that come to mind are particularly good in Louis’ eyes. He wills the bundle of nerves in his stomach to go away, but they don’t. There’s no way to know what sort of news awaits him. Louis lets out a sigh of relief when he sees the large table is only set for two people. His father is sitting in his usual place, at the head of the table farthest from the door. 

“Good Morning, Father,” Louis chirps as he takes his seat on the right side of his fatheZayn stands a ways behind Louis along with the Kong’s valet and his Head Advisor, Valiel. 

“Louis, it’s good to see you on time for once,” King Gaelin comments. 

Louis can’t help but shoot a glare in Zayn’s direction. Of course, he lied to Louis about what time to be ready. He has always had a nasty habit of being tardy for events or interviews, something his father has desperately tried to correct. 

“You have Zayn to thank for that. However, I think I am old enough now to no longer need my valet to wake me up everyday,” Louis says nonchalantly as he puts his napkin on his lap.

“You know how I feel about you becoming too dependent on technology.” The king doesn’t look up. At this point he’s become a bit jaded to his son’s insistent requests for such trivial toys.

“I do. But an alarm clock is hardly addictive.” Louis helps himself to some scrambled eggs and sausage.

“Maybe not at first, but it certainly could lead to more dangerous things.”

“You let everyone else in Faefield have technology.” 

“Well all of Faefied isn’t my son who will have much responsibility later in life.”

“If you even bother to teach me what I need to learn,” Louis mutters.

“One day. It will be a long time until it’s your turn to rule. It is quite a difficult task to keep everything running smoothly around here.”

“So why don’t you tell me something, anything about what it is needed in order to run it?”

“Enough!” the King roars, pounding his fist on the table. Louis closes his mouth, letting the argument die on his tongue. 

“This is why I still have not disclosed everything you need to know yet. You are an insolent child, who still has tantrums!”

“It wasn’t a tantrum,” Louis murmurs.

“You have to be level-headed as a monarch, and as the ambassador for all of your kind.”

“I know,” Louis replies in a bored tone, stabbing his eggs with his fork.

“Then you need to start acting like it.” 

“I will try my best, Sir.” Louis just wants this conversation to be over. He and his father have had some form of this conversation at least once a month for years. The reason he slips back into his childish behavior is simply because his father insists on treating him like one.

“You had better.” 

They eat in silence for a few more minutes, only the sound is of the silverware clinking against their plates and chewing. Louis prefers the silence to whatever sort of advice or judgement his father has for him.

“Now, son, I requested to have this meal with you in order to talk to you about a decision I have made.” The King says as he wipes the corners of his mouth with a napkin, then sets the napkin on his plate. Louis puts down his silverware, quickly chews the food in his mouth and swallows it. The nerves Louis felt at the beginning of breakfast return instantly. There’s no way this can be good.

“I know that I have been very strict over the years with you, but it only comes from a place of concern for your wellbeing. I do not want any harm to come to you, like it did your mother. However, at some point I will not be here any longer and you will need to be an effective leader. I do not believe I have done a good enough job on that portion of your upbringing. So I have decided to let you leave Faefield and experience what Avelan has to offer for yourself.”

“What?” Louis can’t believe those words just left his father’s lips.

“I have enrolled you in Avelan University, where you will take classes, and immerse yourself in the aspects of Avelan you cannot simply learn from textbooks.”

“Seriously?!” Louis feels his eyes widen in shock, he never thought this day would come. 

“Yes, I am very serious. There are of course some stipulations, but this will be a very beneficial to you and all of Faefield in the future when you become their ruler.”

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Louis gets up from his chair and gives his father a hug, which is slightly awkward since he’s still seated. “I can’t believe it! When do I get to leave?”

“The Fall semester starts in two weeks, and in that time you will be taking some informal courses so that you will hopefully blend in.”

“Blend in?”

“Yes. One of the stipulations that I mentioned is that you will have to keep your identity secret. During your time away you will be pretending to be a human.”

“How? The wings are kind of a give away.” Louis knows that he can’t hide them under baggy clothing, something he tried to do when he was much younger. He’s even tried to shrink them with his magic, but it never worked; they seem to be immune. 

“I had Stenya create a potion that will make your wings disappear for a week at a time.”

“Okay,” Louis replies instantly. “What are the other stipulations?”

“Well, Zayn will be enrolled with you, to keep an eye on you and report any sort of problems to me.”

Louis’ eyes flicker over to Zayn standing quietly in the corner of the room. His face is completely blank, giving Louis absolutely zero idea if his friend knew about this beforehand. 

“I’m certainly alright with that. Anything else?” Louis tries to keep the excitement in his voice to a minimum.

“Not right now. But if you get into too much trouble, or are behaving in an extremely reckless way, then I will pull you out of school and you will never set foot outside this castle again. Do you understand me?” The king says solemnly.

“Yes, Sir.” Louis nods. He’s wanted this so, so badly, for literally his entirely life, and he won’t do anything to screw it up now. 

“Very well. After breakfast you will report to Stenya to take the potion for your wings. You must get used to not having them. I scheduled your first course a few hours from now to give you time to recover from the effect of the potion.” 

“Thank you, so much, Father. I won’t disappoint you.” Louis quickly shovels the rest of his food into his mouth and hurriedly leaves the table with Zayn in tow.

“Will you please just walk?” Zayn asks, annoyed by Louis hovering a few feet off the ground next to him.

“I’m using them one last time for who knows how long,” Louis replies.

Zayn rolls his eyes. “Ugh, fine.”

“Did you know about it?” Louis asks quietly.

“I knew your father had something planned, but I didn’t know exactly what it was.”

“I just can’t believe it’s actually happening, it feels like a dream that I might just wake up from any second.”

Zayn takes the liberty to pinch Louis’ arm. Louis lets out a yelp.

“Well you’re definitely awake.”

“I don’t understand why though,” Louis continues, “Like he could have done this at any time, but why now? What made him change his mind?”

“I don’t know, mate, but I’m certainly not going to challenge your father. And I certainly don’t think you want to either, he might take everything back. “

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Louis sighs. After a beat he says, “I’ll race you the rest of the way. Loser has to drink the potion first!” Louis zips off, not waiting for a reply.

“You’re so on,” Zayn flaps his wings a few times to get off the ground, then speeds down the corridor as fast as he can.

Zayn wins.

“Louis, dear! It’s so good to see you! It’s been such a long time since you’ve come to visit.” Stenya pulls Louis into a tight hug. Louis wraps his arms around her, comforted by the familiar feeling. 

After his own mother died, Stenya became something of a second mum for Louis. Whenever he was feeling particularly down about anything he would find his way to the hospital wing and Stenya always knew the right thing to say to make him feel better.

“It’s only been a couple of weeks,” Louis protests meekly.

“That’s too long, young man.” Stenya takes a step back and rests her hands on Louis’ shoulders. “Has your father been keeping you busy?”

“Always. You know how he is.” Louis shrugs.

“I do,” Stenya says wistfully. She knows that the King is not the best at showing his emotions, especially to his son. And after the loss of his wife, he became even more closed off. It completely broke him and in the process of grieving on his own, he pushed his son away. “Alright, we have some important business to get to, don’t we dear?” She walks over to her desk in the corner and picks up a large beaker with a fluorescent purple liquid.

“Is that it?” Zayn asks with a mix of disgust and awe.

“Yes, dear. I’m afraid so. The King wants you to take the potion now, so you have a couple of weeks to get used to not having wings. Both of you will need to drink the potion once a week at the exact same time to keep your wings from sprouting back. If you are late by even a couple of minutes, you have to allow them to return to their normal state before you can drink the potion again. So I strongly recommend that you don’t miss a single dose, as it is quite painful.” Stenya gives Louis a meaningful look.

Louis gulps loudly. “How painful exactly?” he asks warily.

“Some of the test subjects say it’s like knives stabbing them repeatedly,” Stenya says bluntly, as she pours some of the purple liquid into two small vials.

“Oh, well that’s reassuring,” Louis replies sarcastically.

Stenya ignores Louis’ comment, as she hands a vial to each boy. “You’ll both need to take off your shirts.” Louis does so slowly, not looking forward to whatever is coming. “You’ll want to be sitting down for this.” Louis sits on the edge of the examination table. His heart feels like it might jump out of his chest. The thought of what’s to come is certainly terrifying, but if it means he finally gets to leave Faefield, he’ll do just about anything.

Louis looks at the vial, a sense of dread blooming in his stomach. He closes his eyes and drinks the potion in one go. It has an unpleasant taste to it, like a mixture of dirty socks and garbage. It burns his throat as it goes down.

”Is that all?” Louis looks back, his wings obviously still there.

“I’m afraid not,” Stenya says.

Louis feels an intense stabbing where his wings are attached to his back. He lets out an agonizing scream. His wings are being pulled towards his back by the magic of the potion, like a magnet. They are attempting to fight the magic, resistant to potion, like they have a mind of their own. Once his wings are only a few inches from his back he feels every scale of his wings begin to fuse into his skin with the heat of a thousand suns.

Eventually the pain subsides to an intense throbbing, leaving Louis a panting, sweaty mess.

“Holy fucking shit,” Louis gasps, doubled over. “That is the worst pain I have ever experienced. Fuck.”

“Maybe you’ve finally found a good enough motivator for Louis to be on time for once,” Zayn jokes.

Louis shoots him a glare. “It’s your turn.”

Stenya silently hands Zayn the other vial. Zayn takes it and looks at it apprehensively.

“Just get it over with,” Louis chides.

“I’m preparing myself,” Zayn shoots back.

“Then you’ll never be ready.”

“He’s right,” Stenya chimes in. “You just have to do it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zayn mutters. He takes a deep breath and swallows the potion.

Watching the process is fascinating. Louis can’t tear his eyes away. And the end result is truly stunning. Zayn’s back is now covered in an exact replica of his wings, like a tattoo. Louis looks over his shoulder, and sees the ends of his wings covering both of his shoulders, with the very tips nearly reaching his collarbone. 

“Woah,” Louis says. He runs his fingers over the imprint of his wings.

 

\---

 

Louis stares up at the gate to Avelan. It’s truly massive standing 30 feet tall, made of a mixture of light and dark wood. The doors are wider at the base, becoming narrower as it goes up, with the top of the doors ending in a point. 

The last two weeks have moved torturously slow. He’s spent most of his time learning important things about the human world. The day after his father’s announcement Louis woke up to find a MacBook, and iPhone XR on his bedside table. He had spent hours on end simply learning everything he could about them. He spent at least 40 minutes just taking selfies in the photo booth app and marveling at all the different filters both devices offered. Zayn taught him how to type, not in an official way, but one that would at least get him by at the beginning. Zayn also showed him what emojis are. Louis thinks they’re incredibly confusing, but loves them anyway. His favorite is probably the smiley face with the sunglasses, or the middle finger, a gesture that lots of humans find insulting for some reason. 

Learning how to use common technology was just a small part of all the things that Louis was taught. He had a crash course in all of human history from the past three hundred years, not that he can see himself needing any of the information beyond what happened in the last fifty odd years and even that’s a stretch. He also had to learn about common human behaviors, like the handshake as a casual greeting, and maybe a hug later on, if the other person was okay with it. He found this be be quite a strange concept considering a hug was a casual greeting for Fairies. 

The most important part of Louis’ schooling in all thing human was ultimately pop culture. YouTube was particularly helpful with music and celebrity gossip. But Zayn also helped, making sure to go over popular songs and artists as well as movies and TV from the last decade and beyond. Perhaps the most challenging lesson from Zayn was slang. Louis didn’t understand the terms at all 

(“Does lit mean it’ll be on fire? That sounds extremely dangerous,” 

“No, no, it just means it’s cool, like really fun or exciting.” 

“Oh, okay,” Louis falls silent as he looks over the list of slang terms “And what does yeet mean again?”)

The last two weeks have made Louis feel like he can take on anything; he can definitely pretend to be human. However, staring at the gate makes doubt bloom within his chest. 

“Zayn. I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Five minutes ago you were literally bragging about how much of a breeze this will be.”

“Zayn…” he whines. 

“You don’t even have to get to know the humans that well. We have a room together, so everything you have learned is just to get you by in the situations where you have to actually pass as human. You are the most cocky person I know, and I know you can do this.”

Louis lets out a sigh. “You’re right. you’re totally right. Okay, Let’s do this.” He gets into the passenger side of the car, as Zayn gets behind the driver’s seat. Louis holds his breath as the gate opens and Zayn drives out into Avelan. 

Outside doesn’t look much different from Faefield, trees line both sides of the paved road. Not the bustling city like he had assumed. Louis continues to stare out the window at the forest he’s known his whole life, still amazed and shocked and thrilled to finally be on the outside. 

“We have a bit of a drive before we can see the city,” Zayn says unprompted, sensing his friend’s restlessness. “You won’t be disappointed.”

They only drive about five more minutes before they can see the city skyline. There are so many incredibly tall buildings, much much taller than even the trees in the forest. The most stories any building in Faefield has is five, so to see anything taller is just mind blowing. 

The two lane paved road they’re on eventually changes into a four lane, all with people going towards the city. Above the road he spots multiple dragons flying in the same direction as the traffic. He knew they were used for transportation, but they aren’t needed in Faefield. He looks to his right and sees an elf driving a sleek black car, appearing to be talking to themself. The next car to pass is much larger and contains a family of orcs, the one in the driver’s seat continually turning around to yell at the children in the back.

“Isn’t this incredible, Zayn?” Louis says, face pressed against the glass like a kid at a toy store. 

“Yeah, rush hour traffic is sure something,” Zayn replies bemusedly. 

“You don’t seem to admire it as much.” Louis tears his eyes away from a navy blue car with blacked out windows, probably carrying vampires or some other nocturnal creatures.

“Well, this isn’t my first time in Avelan. You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

“I don’t see how,” Louis replies as he trains his attention back to the fast approaching skyline.

-

 

The campus of Avelan University is much larger than Louis expected. If not for the signs directing all new students towards the Admissions building it would have definitely taken them at least fifteen minutes to find the building they were supposed to be in. The campus is just like the city around them in terms of different creatures and species of all kinds. The buildings are much smaller though, much more similar to the treehouses back home. Most of them are made from bricks, but there are a handful of more modern buildings that glint in the sun and seem to be made of mostly glass. Louis takes it all in with awe, still amazed that he even gets to be here.

The line coming out of the Admissions building is fairly long, but it appears to be moving quickly. Louis and Zayn approach a human standing behind a table at the end of the line, wearing a royal blue shirt with the Avelan University logo emblazoned on the front.

“Are you two incoming students?” she asks with a large smile.

“Yes, we are,” Louis responds cheerily.

“Well then, welcome to Avelan University! I’m Cherie.” She grabs two blue folders off the table and hands one to each of the boys. “These are your Welcome Packets. They have a map of the school and a few pamphlets about organizations to join as well as other services the University offers. Oh, and most importantly there’s a schedule for the first week. The school likes to give incoming students lots of opportunities to meet other students, and encourages everyone to explore the campus as much as possible before really calling this place home. Do you have any questions for me?”

“Uh, not right now,” Zayn responds as he glances at the mass of papers in the folder.

“Great! Well the line starts here, and you’ll get your IDs as well as room assignments if you haven’t gotten them already.”

“Thanks,” Louis says with a smile and a small wave, another human greeting he learned. He shuffles away from the table to get in line.

“She never stopped smiling,” Zayn hisses as soon as they’re out of ear shot. “It was creepy.”

“I didn’t think it was that weird.”

“That’s just because you’re way too excited about going to school.”

“You’re not?” 

“I’m essentially a glorified babysitter for your royal ass.”

Louis hits the back of Zayn’s head. “Keep it down,” Louis hisses, quickly looking around to see if anyone heard him. “We can’t blow this on the first fucking day.”

“Ow.” Zayn rubs the back of his head. “Like that would have given anything away.”

“I am not letting you ruin this for me.” Louis crosses his arms over his chest. 

“Alright,” Zayn puts his arms up in surrender. “No jokes about being royal or anything else that could be misconstrued as a hint to your true identity.”

”Thank you oh so much for being so considerate and, you know, doing your job of protecting me.” Louis says, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

“Don’t mention it.” Zayn rolls his eyes. 

They get through the line for ID’s quickly. Louis can’t help but be amazed that the machine can make them instantaneously. Magic can do the same thing basically, but he’s been surrounded by that his entire life. Another student in a royal blue shirt directs them down the corridor for their room assignment. They walk into an office and approach the desk.

“IDs please,” the elven receptionist says, without looking at them.

The boys do as she says. She grabs Louis’ and types his name into the computer.

“Mr. Tomlinson you are in Eldroth Hall, Room 317.” She swipes the ID over a small black square that beeps when she does, and hands it back to him.She types in Zayn’s name. “Mr. Malik you are in Eldroth Hall, Room 422.” She does the same thing with Zayn’s ID.

“I’m sorry, there must be some sort of mistake. We’re supposed to be in the same room,” Zayn says quickly.

“Well according to our records, you aren’t.” She looks at them completely unimpressed.

“But we have to be in the same room,” Louis protests.

“You can take it up with Student Housing, but for now there’s nothing that I can do for you.”

“But-”

“I have other students to assist.”

“Fine.” Zayn glares at her and storms out of the office.

“Sorry about him,” Louis says before quickly following his friend.

“What are we going to do?” Zayn is frantically pacing in the corridor. “Your father is not going to let this happen.”

“So we just won’t tell him,” Louis suggests.

Zayn frowns. “I’m not lying to your father. ”

“You don’t have to say anything about it to him. I can do all the lying,” Louis reassures him.

“But he’ll blame me.” Zayn runs a hand through his hair. 

“No he won’t. I’ll make sure of it. This will be a good thing for us. We’ve spent most of our lives joined at the hip, so this will definitely be good. Plus, I can totally learn way more from my roommate than from you, no offense.”

Zayn lets out a loud sigh, “Alright, fine. But if I don’t like your roommate we’re going to go to Student Housing and fix this mess.”

“Aw, someone’s jealous!” Louis wraps his arms around Zayn in a tight embrace. 

“Get off!” Zayn tries to wriggle free from Louis’ hug, but it doesn’t work. “I’m not jealous, I’m just doing my job. Let’s go meet our roommates.”

“Yes! Let’s go meet our new best friends!” Louis shouts joyfully. Things are already going a thousand times better than he thought they would’ve. 

-

 

Louis pulls his two suitcases behind him down the corridor of the third floor of Eldroth Hall. The door is closed, meaning his roommate probably hasn’t arrived yet. Which also means that he has a bit of time to settle in before meeting whoever he’ll be living with for the next year. Louis waves his ID in front of the door handle. It beeps and a green light flashes. Louis opens it quickly, unsure how long he has before it locks again. 

The room is much smaller than his back home. He can’t believe that another person will fit in here, but the human Louis doesn’t get treated like a prince. He knew this would be a bit of an adjustment, so he’s just going to make it work. 

It doesn’t take Louis long to unpack since he really only brought clothes and his laptop. He didn’t even think about bringing stuff to decorate the walls with to make the room his. Come to think of it, he doesn’t actually think that he even has anything he would want to put on his walls, and certainly nothing that could pass as human. Oh, well, he can always just buy new things to make his room feel more homey.

Louis is putting his last shirt on a hanger when the door opens.

“Oh, hi! I’m Harry. I guess we’re roommates!” The boy says cheerfully as he hold out his right hand, the other holding a rolling suitcase.

Louis grabs his outstretched hand and can’t help but feel a small flash of pride at completing his first handshake successfully. “Hi, I’m Louis.” 

“It’s great to meet you. Uh, this is my mum, she came to help me move in.” Harry gestures to the woman behind him. 

“Hi, Louis, I’m Anne. Do you have anyone helping you move in today?” Anne asks as she sets the box she’s holding on Harry’s desk.

“No, my father had important business meetings that he just couldn’t miss,” Louis replies carefully. The King had made sure Louis knew his fake background story inside and out, for instances just like this. 

“Oh that’s a shame, dear. Do you need any help unpacking your things?” Anne says with a nearly imperceptible frown.

“I’m done actually. Didn’t bring much from home, I wanted a bit of a fresh start.”

“Whatever floats your boat,” Harry starts to put up a poster on his wall.

“I’ll go grab some more things from the car, Harry. I’ll let you two unpack and get to know each other.” Anne leaves quickly.

“So where are you from?” Harry asks as he unzips his suitcase and starts taking his clothes out. 

“Kinda from here and there. My dad travels a lot for work.” Louis sits on his bed and watches Harry unpack. 

“What about your mum?” Harry reaches into his suitcase.

“She... uh, she died.” 

Harry drops the shirt he’s holding and spins around to face Louis. “Oh my fucking god, I’m so sorry.”

“It happened ages ago, it’s okay. Just a fact at this point.” Louis shrugs. It’s true, he barely remembers his mum. It’s not as if his father ever talks about her, so everything Louis has learned about her has been from history books, and Stenya . 

“I feel like a dick for even asking now. I am so sorry.” Harry rubs the back of his neck.

“Harry, it’s okay, really truly. She died when I was ten, it’s been fort--- I mean it’s been forever.” He can’t believe he’s already nearly slipped up. He really needs to more careful. 

“Okay,” Harry says softly, the slightest pout on his lips. Louis tries not to stare at them. 

“So where are you from?” Louis asks. 

“Ah, I live in Melbridge.” 

“I’ve heard good things about there.” 

“‘S alright.” Harry shrugs. “I really want to live in the city though, it’s just so vibrant and full of life. I love seeing all of the creatures living together, makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger.” 

“Me too!” Louis exclaims, perhaps a little too enthusiastically. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Harry cocks his head in confusion, but doesn’t say anything. “My mum is a bit terrified of me being out on my own in Avelan. We’ve never really spent much time in the city.”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Louis has heard all about the dangers of Avelan from his father, but Louis has never really believed them. His father is simply a bitter fool. 

“To be honest, I just think that she’s nervous about ‘her baby’ trekking out on his own. Between you and me, she’s not ready to be an empty nester.” 

“But your mum doesn’t have a nest,” Louis states plainly. 

Harry bursts out laughing. Louis quite likes the sound of it. “No she doesn’t.”

“Then why is she an empty nester?” 

“It’s an expression, like when baby birds leave the nest and the mama bird is all alone.” Harry explains with a confused smile on his face. 

“Ohhhh, that makes sense.” Louis nods thoughtfully. 

“So, what’s your area of study?” Harry asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence. 

“Interspecies Politics,” Louis replies quickly. 

“Wow, that's kind of a tough field. What made you decide to do that?”

“My dad does a lot within the field and he’s always expected me to follow in his footsteps, so I kind of have to.” Louis shrugs. 

“You know, you could choose to do something else.” Harry looks over his shoulder as he folds a pair of trousers. 

Louis can’t help, but snort at the idea. “Yeah this is the one thing I can’t get out of. Let’s just say a lot of people depend on me doing it, so.”

“You should pursue a career in something you’re passionate about.” 

“That’s not an option for me,” Louis grits out. Harry obviously doesn’t know that Louis is next in line to the throne, and the only child so he certainly can’t defect it to his nonexistent siblings. 

“Why not?” Harry asks. 

“Because I just can’t okay?!” Louis explodes. 

“Louis, I’m sor-“ 

“I need some air,” Louis cuts him off and storms out of the room, letting the door slam behind him. Anne is walking towards him with another box of Harry’s things. Louis composes himself and plasters a smile on his face, like he’s been taught all his life. “It’s been an absolute joy getting to know Harry.” 

“Well, that’s lovely to hear,” Anne smiles. “Are you off to grab some food?”

“Not right now. I just have to go check in on a mate of mine who lives upstairs. He needs some help unpacking,” Louis lies.

“I probably won’t see you again then. It was nice to meet you, Louis.”

“You as well,” Louis says hurriedly. “I really have to go now, my mate sounded like he was freaking out a bit. I should make sure he’s alright.” 

Before Harry’s mum can reply, Louis steps around her and stalks toward the stairs. The fourth floor looks nearly identical to the third. Louis quickly finds Zayn’s room and knocks on the door. 

Zayn opens it only a second later, with a look of relief on his face. 

“Oh, thank god,” he says, only loud enough for Louis to hear. “I’ll be right back, Liam, just need to chat with my mate for a bit about something important.” Zayn quickly steps out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him. Louis only catches a glimpse of Zayn’s roommate, before the door closes completely. “Let’s get out of here.” Zayn pulls Louis down the end of the hall to another staircase, he sits on the top step and puts his head in his hands.

“You alright?” Louis smirks, his anger at Harry forgotten for a moment.

“Define alright,” Zayn moans.

“Things not going well with your roomie?”

“The opposite, actually.” 

“What d’you mean?”

“Liam is really, really nice. He’s like a mix of an overexcited puppy, and you about twenty years ago.”

“Ah, yeah I can see how that would be too much. I was quite the menace then.” Louis sits down next to Zayn.

“You’ve always been a menace, not to mention a pain in the arse.”

“That’s not totally fair,” Louis protests.

Zayn gives him a look that says ‘come on’.

“Alright yeah, I’m a bit of a pain in the arse.”

“Try major.”

Louis rolls his eyes and shoves Zayn playfully.

“So how’s your roommate?” 

“Harry’s great. We’re best mates now,” Louis jests. 

“Then why are you here with me instead of bonding with the human? I don’t blame you, I am amazing, but I didn’t think it would only be a couple hours for you to come running back.”

“Because he doesn’t understand the pressure I’m under. He says I should do what I want and not follow in my father’s footsteps,” Louis gushes. “But of course he doesn’t know that it’s impossible. Of course, I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it. It’s not as if I asked to be a prince. But to have someone be so blatant about the future is so strange. And maybe, deep down, I do want to make my own path rather than just follow the one that’s been paved for me, but realistically I could never do it, there’s no one else so take the throne, besides my cousin, Colin, but he’s an ass. Harry was talking about doing what makes me happy, but I don’t think I can.” Louis takes a deep breath.

“Wow, that’s a lot,” Zayn sighs.

“I know,” Louis groans and buries his face in his hands. 

“This isn’t about this Harry guy at all is it?”

“Maybe not,” Louis pauses for a few seconds, then sighs, “I suppose it wasn’t entirely fair that I got so angry with him. He seems like a genuinely nice bloke, I’m sure he thought he was just helping.”

“So why are you really angry?” Zayn prods. 

“I don’t know, I’m just frustrated with my father. He doesn’t let me leave Faefield for literally my entire life, and barely lets me do my princely duties, which is fucking ridiculous because when the time comes I won’t even know what to do!”

“I’m sure he has his reasons-”

“Of course he does!” Louis stands up quickly, and starts to pace on the landing. “He always has a perfect explanation for his actions! But I’m his son, I deserve to not be treated as a fucking burden that he just has to deal with! I feel like all I am to him is another problem that he can push away and pawn off on other people. I’m meant to rule one day! But why should I be king when he makes me feel infinitesimal?” Louis feels tears starting to well up and he does his best to hold them in.

“You are anything, but a burden,” Zayn says fiercely. 

“Really? Because my whole life I’ve been throwing some sort of tantrum or trying to escape Faefield, and all he’s ever done is put guards on me 24/7. I mean he can’t even take the time to punish me!”

“Did you really want that though?” 

Louis stops pacing. “I just want to know that he fucking cares,” Louis sobs as the tears finally spill over. 

Zayn gets up quickly and wraps Louis in a tight hug. “He does care.”

“It doesn’t feel like it,” Louis cries into Zayn’s shoulder. 

“He just doesn’t know how to show it. So screw him, this is your chance to show him he’s wrong about you.” Zayn moves his arms to Louis’ shoulders. ”You will be a great king one day. I know it, You genuinely care about people and want what’s best for your subjects, despite the fact your father hasn’t prepared you. I believe in you and know you’ll do the right things when the time comes.”

“You’re my best mate, you have to say that,” Louis sniffles, and wipes the tears from his eyes.

“It’s because I’m your best mate that I know it’s true.”

“Are you going to confess your undying love next?”

Zayn throws his arms up in frustration and fights the urge to slap Louis. “Why did you have to go and ruin the nice moment we were having?”

“So you do love me. I knew it!”

“It’s just the Stockholm Syndrome.” Zayn rolls his eyes. 

“It’s still love.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Zayn says dismissively. “You gonna apologize to Harry now?”

Louis sighs heavily and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, that’ll probably make living together a lot easier.”

“Probably. Text me if you need anything. Also, we’re definitely having dinner together.”

“Okay, mum.”

“It’s literally my job to take care of you.” Zayn deadpans. 

“Touche.” Louis starts down the stairs, heading back to his room. Hopefully, Harry is still putting his things away. Louis spends the short walk, down the corridor forming his apology. When he gets to the door, he takes a deep breath before opening it. Louis finds Harry sitting on his bed with headphones in his ears. As soon as Harry spots Louis, he rips his earbuds out and stands up. 

 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blown up at you the way I did, but the whole following in my dad’s footsteps is a bit of a touchy subject you might say.” Louis says quickly

“I shouldn’t have been so pushy. We barely know each other so I really have no right to judge your situation. I feel terrible about it.” Harry says at the same time

“Let’s just start fresh,” Louis suggests as he holds out his hand, “I’m Louis Tomlinson, it’s nice to meet you.”

Harry grins widely, both of his dimples on display, and grabs Louis’ hand. “I’m Harry Styles. Nice to meet you too.”

-

“Oh. My. God. Isn’t this just the best night ever?!” Louis squeals as he darts ahead to the next booth, grasping Harry’s wrist to pull him along. Louis notices Harry’s pulse speed up, but doesn’t pay it any mind. 

They’re at the Welcoming Activities Fair, an event held every year to welcome the students to campus and showcase everything it has to offer. It’s intended for all students, but the majority of those in attendance are the freshman. The quad which is normally full of students going from class to class is filled with rows and rows of tables for each organization on the campus, as well as stations for fun activities. There’s even a bouncy castle and a ball pit. 

“Stay where I can see you!” Zayn yells after them. Liam laughs, as they follow their roommates.

After Louis and Harry’s little spat got resolved, they spent the next few hours getting to know each other. Louis thinks he did a good job pretending to be human, he only got ten odd glances from Harry in the span of four hours so he is putting it in the win column. 

 

Eventually they got hungry and ended up in the cafeteria with Zayn and Liam. The food there was not of the greatest quality, something Louis had been preparing for, but was still shocked at just how different it was from the food back home. Nobody else complained, so Louis didn’t either. 

He found it much easier to keep up his human facade with Zayn around, which probably has something to do with the fact that Zayn knows a lot more about human behavior and culture. Zayn is also much better about actually thinking before speaking, something Louis has always struggled with. You’d think with all the mischief he’s gotten into over the years means he’d be good at subterfuge, but you’d be mostly wrong. 

They all set off to the Fair together. And now Louis is running around like a six year old, tugging Harry along, who seems genuinely just as excited as Louis. 

Louis wants to see every single booth. Hence why they are currently standing in front of the Under-Water Polo Club. The table is manned by a merman and mermaid, in a large tank high enough for their bottom halves to be submerged. Louis knows he won’t be able to participate since he can’t breathe underwater. The excitement of being surrounded by so many different creatures is just a little overwhelming, but in a good way. For the first time in a long time Louis is actually excited about life. 

Harry grabs Louis’ hand and pulls him away from the merpeople. 

“Oi, that was very rude Harold!” Louis complains, allowing Harry to choose the next booth. 

Harry rolls his eyes. “Oh, please, it’s not like we’d be able to join.”

“I’ll have you know I’m excellent at holding my breath underwater,” Louis lies. He’s actually terrible in the water. He knows how to swim, but he’s not good at it.

“Enough to play with water creatures who don’t need oxygen? Makes perfect sense,” Harry responds, the sarcasm dripping heavily from his words.

“You’re just jealous.” Louis sees the familiar glint of wings a couple tables away. The table that Harry just so happens to be making a beeline for, passing a table of goblins and one with leprechauns. Shit. Of course Harry wants to check out the fairy table. The last thing Louis needs right now is to deal with his subjects. He can’t pass as human if other fairies clam up when they see him and start bowing and curtsying. “Harry I need to pee,” he lies quickly. 

“Can you wait ‘til after we talk to the fairies?” Harry pouts exaggeratedly, stopping in his tracks. 

“Nope, I really, really gotta go,” he says desperately, and shifts from one foot to the other a couple times, like he’s trying to hold it. 

Harry looks at the fairies behind the table with a look of longing, then turns back to Louis. 

“Fine,” he sighs heavily. 

“C’mon I think the closest bathroom is this way.” Louis pulls Harry in the opposite direction of the table with absolutely no clue where he’s headed, only that he wants to get as far awayas he can. At some point Louis realizes that Zayn and Liam aren’t behind them anymore, but he doesn’t really care right now. 

Louis drags Harry to one of the buildings on the opposite side of the fair. He quickly goes into the bathroom counts to forty as he stands there, then washes his hands for good measure. 

In the hall, Harry is leaning against the wall, typing on his phone. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and his tongue sticking out of his mouth ever so slightly. Louis stops and stares at Harry for a few seconds. Not in a creepy way, he’s just admiring him. Totally normal. 

The bathroom door closes loudly behind Louis, causing Harry to jump and look up from his phone. He pockets his phone and grins widely at Louis. 

“Let’s go to that ball pit we saw a while back,” Louis suggests. 

“But the fairies,” Harry whines. 

“My feet are so sore from running all night. I wanna sit for a while.” It’s not a complete lie.

Harry looks at Louis with a determined look and chews on his bottom lip for a few seconds, as if he’s deciding something. 

“Yeah, okay,” Harry huffs, ending whatever internal debate he was having. “I did want to check it out anyways.”

“Alrighty to the ball pit we go! Last one there buys an ice cream cone!” Louis darts off, leaving a flabbergasted Harry behind. 

Louis ends up winning the race. He may have used just a teensy bit of magic to make a garbage can tip over in front of Harry at one point, but he really wants free ice cream so it was worth it. 

He hops in the the ball pit gleefully and waits for Harry. 

“Oi, mate what are you so cheery about?” A blonde boy with a thick Irish accent asks from the other side of the inflatable pool filled with plastic balls. 

“I won the race, and get ice cream,” Louis replies with pride. 

“That’s certainly a good reason to be happy. I’m Niall, by the way.”

“Louis.”

“You look familiar. Do I know you?” Niall squints, as if that will somehow help him remember. 

“Uh, no I don’t think so. I’m pretty new to Avelan.” Louis doesn’t particularly like the attention he’s getting from the other boy, something about it is just off putting. 

Suddenly the boy gasps. “Holy shit, I know who you are!” he yells. 

“I don’t think you do,” Louis grits out.

“Where are your wings? Did you cut them off?” 

“Shut it,” Louis hisses. He quickly slaps a hand over Niall’s mouth. Louis looks around and spots a few people staring in their direction. Louis smiles at them reassuringly, before turning his attention back to Niall. If someone who isn’t even a fairy knows his face, then this plan is doomed, and Louis will find himself locked away in Faefield for the rest of his existence. 

“You’re Prince Louis,” Niall in a much softer voice, once Louis removes his hand. 

“How do you know that? Are you a spy?” Louis hisses with his eyes narrowed. He figures there’s not much sense in playing dumb in this situation.

“What?!” Niall asks incredulously. “No! I’m half leprechaun, me dad grew up in Faefield.” 

There are some leprechauns that choose to live among the fairies, especially the older generations, since leprechauns have their own form of magic. To this day there are still plenty of humans or other creatures who would use leprechaun magic for nefarious means. It’s easy for them to blend in within the human community since there aren’t really any ways to tell a leprechaun apart from a human. But the older generations who are still frightened of a less peaceful time find Faefield to be a safe haven where they are allowed to be themselves. 

Louis moves back just a little, “show me.” he demands. 

“Show you what?” 

“One of your leprechaun tricks.” Louis crosses his arms.

“Why?” 

“Because I don’t fully trust you yet.” 

“You don’t trust me?! That’s rich.” Louis crosses his arms. “You’re the one who could literally tell everyone who I really am.”

“True, but I still don’t completely trust you.” 

Harry jogs up to the ball pits with a disgruntled look on his face. “I want a rematch,” he says as he climbs in. 

“What took you so long? You weren’t that far behind me!” Louis moves so he’s opposite Niall. 

“I stopped to help pick up all the rubbish that spilled out of the bin.” Harry shrugs.

“You didn’t even knock it over though,” Louis replies

“Yeah but I felt bad about just leaving it there, and have someone else do it.” 

“You’re too good for this world, Harold.” Louis can’t help but ruffle Harry’s hair. Harry leans his head into the gesture ever so slightly, and closes his eyes.

“Aww you two are so cute,” Niall coos. “How long have you been together?”

Harry sits up abruptly and scooches away from Louis. Louis feels a slight pang of sadness at the loss of contact. “We just met today. We’re roommates,” Harry says quickly. 

“You guys just seem really close already. Suppose that’s a good thing, if you’re gonna be livin’ together all year.”

“Anyways, Niall here was just telling me how he’s half leprechaun and was going to show me a trick,” Louis interjects. 

“For real?!” Harry practically squeals. “I’ve never met a leprechaun before.” Harry has a sparkle in his eyes that reminds Louis of a child being surprised with a puppy. 

“I can’t do much,” Niall replies, clearly disgruntled. He shoots a glare in Louis’ direction. 

“Please?” Harry pouts. 

“Fine, fine.” 

Harry claps delightedly a few times. Niall closes his eyes and holds out his palm. Nothing happens at first, but after ten seconds a few pieces of gold appear in his hand. 

“There you go,” he says and pours them into Harry’s hand, who proceeds to inspect them. “Those won’t stay for long, maybe a couple hours at most. I obviously don’t have as much mojo as the real deal.”

“It’s still amazing,” Harry answers, completely enthralled with Niall’s trick. “Isn’t it Louis?”

“It certainly is.” Louis nods in agreement. “So, Ni-”

“Louis, you fucking bastard!” a voice exclaims. 

Louis turns to see Zayn stalking towards the ball pit. 

“Fuck,” Louis murmurs. He had completely forgotten about Zayn.

“What the actual fuck, Lou?!” Zayn says, standing outside the pit, Liam only a few paces behind him. “You are such a little shit.”

“I’m so sorry, Zayn. I got caught up in everything, and totally spaced,” Louis apologizes. He genuinely feels bad for ditching Zayn, but at the same time who could blame him? He’s never been surrounded by so many different creatures, the excitement of the night got to him. 

“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” Zayn throws his arms up in frustration.

“Zayn, you should calm down,” Harry interjects.

“Stay out of this, Harry,” Zayn snaps, turning his attention to Harry. “This isn’t any of your business.”

“You’re the one who’s treating him like he’s a child who’s in trouble,” Harry retorts.

“I. Said. Shut it.” Zayn clenches his fists. 

“Zayn,” Louis says with a warning tone. 

“What?” Zayn bites out. 

“Stop being so rude,” Louis orders. It’s not often he pulls the authority card, and he doesn’t think he’s ever actually used it over his friend before. 

Zayn opens his mouth to reply, but closes it quickly when Louis gives him a challenging look. 

“Will you guys excuse us for just a minute?” Louis says to their audience with a smile plastered on his face. There are murmurs of assent from the three other boys, obviously feeling very awkward about the current situation at hand.

Louis gets out of the ball pit as gracefully as possible, and pulls Zayn into the crowd for a bit of privacy. 

“You can’t do that again,” Louis grits out. 

“What about you?! You can’t just go running off like that!” 

“Are you questioning my authority?” Louis raises an eyebrow.

“What? No, of course, not!” 

“Well it certainly feels like it.” Louis replies truthfully “And you certainly can’t act like my bodyguard in front of others.”

“Your father entrusted me-”

“I know that, but we don’t need to be attached at the hip the entire time we’re here.” 

“I was just worried about you is all,” Zayn sighs. “It’s just me protecting you out here. And I know how often you run away from your security because I’m usually right beside you. It just feels so much different when I’m on the other end of it.”

Louis sighs heavily. “Look, I get it-“

“Do you though? You’ve only ever been watched by security guards, never had the responsibility of being the protector.” 

“I don’t need to be a bodyguard to know what it’s like to be worried about someone.” Louis nudges Zayn gently. 

“You’re right,” Zayn admits. 

“I’m always right. When are you gonna get that through your head?” 

“Never,” Zayn snorts.

“Rude!” 

“I can’t make any promises about not freaking out in the future.” 

“And I can’t make any promises that I won’t be a total pain in the arse.” 

A comfortable silence falls between he two friends. 

“You know, this is like our second heart to heart today. At this point it’s just seems excessive.” Zayn says suddenly.

“Well, it has been bit of a rollercoaster there. It was bound to happen.” 

“It has been a wild day,l.”

“You ready to get back to our new friends?” Louis asks patting Zayn’s shoulder. 

“No,” Zayn groans loudly into his hands. “Let’s just hide from them forever. We can live in the library.” 

“Yeah... I don’t think my father would like that very much.” 

“How am I meant to explain-”

“Why you were acting like a total psycho? Just tell the truth.”

“Which is?” Zayn looks at Louis in disbelief.

“That you're extremely overprotective of me because I'm an idiot who gets into trouble. Or you could just ask them to pretend like it didn't happen." Louis shrugs.

"Somehow I don't think that'll work.”

“Well it’ll have to. Also you should know that Niall is a leprechaun and he knows who I really am." Louis says quickly in one breath.

"I'm sorry, What?!"

"Niall knows who I am, and probably by extension you as well." Louis pauses for a few seconds. "We should probably get back before he can tell Harry or Liam." 

"Oh, you think?" Zayn says monotonously and moves quickly back to the ball pit, Louis following.

When they get back, Harry, Liam and Niall are laughing and throwing brightly colored plastic balls at one another. Louis immediately jumps back into the pit, teams up with Harry and begins pelting the other two. Zayn watches his friend for a little bit before joining the fray.

-

"Welcome to Interspecies History. I am your professor, James Corden. This semester we will be covering the vast history of Avelan, such as the beginning of our kingdom as we know it, as well as the history of many different species. My Teaching Assistants are passing around the syllabus now which we will go over briefly then dive right in to the fall of the London Empire, and the birth of Avelan.” 

"Isn't this exciting?" Harry whispers to Louis. They are currently sitting next to Niall along with a thousand other students in one of the largest lecture halls on campus. 

 

"Sure," Louis agrees unenthusiastically. It’s their very first lecture and Louis knows he should feel excited, this is what he wanted after all to be out in the real world. Looking over the syllabus he can already tell that this class is going to be extremely boring. He's already learned 95 percent of the stuff they're going to cover, but the class is required for all students. Louis tried his best to get out of it, but since he had no proof of taking a similar course, the administration wouldn't let him skip it, and honestly if it wasn't for Harry and Niall sitting next to him, Louis would never actually come to this class. He already knows he won't have to crack a book all semester. Louis hopes that at least some of his courses will be at least a little entertaining. If they aren't, he would almost rather go back to Faefield and deal with his father thinking he’s a failure. 

But honestly he couldn’t do that. For one, he’d never live it down, and secondly, his father would most likely never let him leave ever again. Plus Louis has friends out here. 

After the Welcoming Activities fair, the five boys spent the rest of the weekend together. The school had plenty of activities scheduled, so they were never bored with. Even if the school didn’t have anything planned they would have definitely been able to find some sort of trouble. 

Louis had been surprised at first that they all got on really well. It feels like the family that Louis had never had, and the best part is he feels like he can be himself. Well, as much of himself as he can show to his new friends. He's still pretty bad at pretending to be human, the worst incident over the weekend was probably when the conversation had somehow turned to how much they had flown. Louis had claimed to fly nearly every day, much to the confusion of Harry and Liam. Zayn had quickly interjected that Louis meant it only felt like he had flown every day of his life. Louis had beaten himself up for a couple hours after. He can't believe he almost risked exposing himself. Something that is also made more complicated by the fact that literally every fairy he walks by stares at him in awe, or worse they actually bow. Louis has yet to come up with a reasonable explanation to that. He told Harry that it's just an inside joke, but he knows Harry doesn't totally buy it, Louis probably wouldn’t either to be honest.

 

"Louis," Harry whispers intently, breaking Louis away from his thoughts.

"Hmm?" 

"Do you want to be my partner?"

"For what?"

"For our first assignment, that Professor Corden just explained."

"Oh! Uh yeah! that would be awesome.”

"Cool," Harry says with a dimpled smile. Louis can't help but smile back. When Harry is happy so is Louis, the curly haired boy just has such an infectious personality, it just draws you in. Louis already feels like he's wrapped around Harry's finger, which should scare him since they've only known each other for a couple of days, but honestly he doesn't mind it. 

"Will you two knock it off?" Niall groans loudly. 

"You're just jealous," Harry replies cheekily. 

"No-"

"Of course he is, Hazza," Louis interjects. "We're the dream team." He wraps one of his arms around Harry's shoulder.

"That's right." Harry nods.

"You're insufferable," Niall rolls his eyes, and goes back to listening to the lecture in lieu of listening to his friends any longer. 

Louis keeps his arm slung over Harry's shoulder and the other boy snuggles further into his side. Louis plays with one of Harry's curls distractedly while he tries to pay attention to the history lesson going on. Professor Corden is currently going over the battle that started all of Avelan. 

"You should be taking notes,” Harry says with a furrowed brow.

"Don't worry, H. I'll remember it all." 

"There's like a lot of stuff that we're going to cover though. I don't think you can."

"I know most of it already," Louis shrugs.

"Well I'm not going to let you borrow my notes later on," Harry warns. Louis isn't sure if he is serious or not, but either way he thinks it's cute. 

"I'll take notes next class if it makes you feel better," Louis acquiesces. 

"Good." 

Louis is most definitely fucked. 

\---

“Let's join the cooking club," Harry says a couple days later in the middle of doing their coursework for class the next day. 

Louis is currently sitting cross legged on his bed, pretending to read about the Fairy's involvement in the establishment of Avelan, but is actually busy playing a game where you have to match candies to beat the different levels. He’s been stuck on the same level for nearly two days and he swears he’s so close to beating it. Harry is working diligently on something for one of the classes he doesn't have with Louis, he thinks it might have to do with trolls.

"Why?" Louis looks up from his book only to see Harry starfished out in the middle of their room, his textbook lying open on his chest. 

"Because we need to learn how to cook."

"No we don't."

"What about when you move out of your dad's house and you have to fend for yourself?” Harry moves so he’s kneeling. “You won't know what to do, and you’ll end up crawling to me, begging to make you something and I won't because you turned down my request to join the cooking club."

Louis chuckles at Harry's story. He can almost see it happening, you know, if he wasn't going to live in the castle back in Faefield for the rest of his life and have chefs at his beck and call nearly all hours of the day. Harry doesn't know that of course, he probably just thinks Louis is being stubborn.

"Fine," Louis agrees as he sets down his book and phone. "You win."

Harry claps giddily. "Good, because I already signed us up for the session tonight."

"What if I had plans?" Louis asks incredulously.

Harry gives Louis a look. "Oh please, you literally have three friends and I talked them into joining too."

"I could have more friends than that," Louis gasps in faux shock. 

"But you don't.”

"Rude!" Louis crosses his arms and sulks.

Harry laughs loudly, and Louis feels a sort of tightness in his chest. 

Louis leaps up from his bed and tackles Harry to the floor. "Take it back," Louis says in a tone that's meant to be menacing.

"Never!" Harry shouts defiantly. Louis straddles Harry's chest and pins him down by his wrists.

"Take it back!"

"Or what?" Harry asks, clearly challenging Louis. 

Before Louis can respond there's a knock on the door. Louis doesn't get off of Harry right away to answer. He looks down at his roommate as if seeing him clearly for the first time. Louis shakes his head to clear it, and quickly hops off of Harry and answers the door. He finds Zayn and Liam standing outside.

"We're not interrupting anything are we?" Liam asks obliviously. 

Zayn's eyes immediately zero in on Harry who is just getting off the floor, and then looks at Louis, whose cheeks are flushed. 

"Just some homework," Louis replies. "What's up?"

"Uh, we're on our way to the cooking club, and swung by to pick you guys up."

Louis turns to look at Harry, "You seriously waited until right before we had to leave for the club to ask if I was interested in joining?

"Um yes?" Harry rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

"You're absolutely ridiculous you know that?"

"Just a bit," Harry smiles widely. 

"Well let's go,” Louis sighs exasperatedly, Harry clearly unrepentant about his actions. ”We certainly can't miss this now can we?" Louis holds the door open for Harry. 

"So what are we gonna be learning today?" Louis asks. 

"Sushi!" Harry lights up. 

"I've never had sushi before," Liam says, providing the perfect opportunity for Harry to share everything he knows about the food. 

Louis tries to listen, but his mind is preoccupied with things that have absolutely nothing to do with sushi. 

\---

Ultimately, Louis has a lot of fun making sushi. His roll ends up being a bit bigger than 2 inches in diameter. He insisted on simply stuffing as much as he possibly could into the roll. 

"Louis stop!" Harry giggles gleefully. 

"It needs to be bigger," Louis is currently stuffing a large amount of tuna on his square of rice that will eventually be rolled up. 

"It won't fit!" 

"Nonsense, Harold." Louis grabs another strip of avocado. He looks at his masterpiece contemplatively, and reaches out for two more cucumber strips and smiles like the Cheshire Cat. He does his best to roll it up, but it proves to be more difficult than he thought, already there are pieces of avocado and fish falling out the ends. 

"Harry help me."

Harry crosses and shakes his head. "Nuh-uh, you made it, you need to figure it out."

"That's rubbish,” Louis scoffs. “Help me.”

"You have to learn from your mistakes, Lou." 

"Fine," Louis huffs, “but you won't get to taste any of my delicious creation."

"I'm willing to make that sacrifice." Harry says easily eating a piece of his already finished roll.

Eventually Louis is able to roll up the sushi monster he made, and it ends up being much more of a square shape than round, like the club leader had shown. 

"Nailed it!" Louis cries out triumphantly. Harry bursts out laughing at Louis' attempt. "Heey."

"I'm sorry, but that's pretty damn funny."

"Don't mock my sushi roll," Louis gasps. "It can't help that it looks like that!"

"I’m definitely laughing at you." Harry wipes away a tear, then grabs his phone to snap a picture. 

"That is so unbelievably rude. Isn't my sushi absolutely perfect, boys?"

Zayn glances up from his own sushi roll, his eyes widening in horror when he sees Louis’ monstrous roll. "Sorry mate, but that is a total mess."

"Even I wouldn't touch that," Niall chimes in. 

"It's a good first try!" Liam says enthusiastically. 

"I hate all of you, apart from Liam." 

"You do realize that you're meant to eat sushi in like one bite right?" Harry asks, still giggling a bit.

"I can eat this in one bite,” Louis insists.

"I don't think you can, Louis." Harry says doubtfully. 

"You really really shouldn't," Liam adds warily. 

"You're only encouraging him," Zayn says monotonously, completely unfazed by Louis' stupid ideas at this point of his life.

Louis proceeds to grab a piece of sushi, and now that he's actually faced with eating a piece of it he's feeling a bit nauseous. He should have listened to his friends, but he's never been particularly good at that so why should he start now. And he certainly can't back out now that he's claimed to have no qualms about eating his massive sushi. He tries his best to fold the sushi in half, and of course a few stray pieces fall onto the table as he shoves it into his mouth. He finds it difficult to chew, and certainly not tasty like he imagines it's supposed to be, but he pushes through and after about twenty seconds manages to swallow all of it.

"I win!" Louis shouts triumphantly. 

"You don't get a prize for being gross," Zayn says with wide eyes.

"That was actually kind of impressive," Niall says. Zayn slaps Niall's shoulder. "It's true!"

"Thank you, Niall," Louis replies pridefully. "Hazza, what did you think?" 

"I- um... wow." Harry gulps. 

"You alright?" Liam asks.

"I think he's just as shocked as the rest of us," Niall says, and pats Harry's back a couple of times. "Maybe more."

"Uh yeah, what Niall said," Harry agrees. "I need to go to the loo." Harry stands up abruptly and shuffles out of the room.

“Should I go after him?” Louis asks.

“I really don’t think that would help, mate,” Niall chuckles at how oblivious Louis is. 

 

\---

 

The semester absolutely flies by in a whirlwind of reading textbooks, writing essays, and general shenanigans with his friends whenever he’s not in class. Before Louis knows it the semester is nearly halfway over. Midterms start next week for most classes, and every single professor is warning their students to start studying now and not wait until the night before. All of Louis’ friends have started to freak out, especially Harry who constantly has some sort of study material in his hands during any free time he has. He didn’t say more than two words at dinner last night, too preoccupied by his Introduction to Interspecies Relations notes. And of course, Harry’s concern extends to Louis as well. Whenever Harry catches Louis watching Netflix he goes mental and goes on a rant about Louis' not being serious enough about his grades. Which is kind of true, Louis wants to do well in his classes, and doesn't have a difficult time with remembering the material. He listens in class and sometimes takes notes, but for the most part he's able to recall most of the information. Of course, Harry doesn't like that explanation. 

"Louis, you need to study," Harry hisses one day at the library, which is full of students preparing for their midterms. Louis is currently taking a quiz that will tell him what kind of fruit he is. (The current question wants him to choose which Disney Princess he would be, and he's completely torn between Rapunzel or Ariel.)

"I am," Louis replies, finally deciding on Rapunzel.

"Lou," Harry whines. 

Louis looks up from his computer to see Harry staring at him intently. "I've got most of the stuff I need to know already memorized."

"How?!? You're taking five classes! How can you possibly know everything?"

Louis shrugs. "Quiz me on anything for our history class."

Harry lets out a frustrated sigh and puts away the notes he's been pouring over. He reaches into his knapsack and pulls out his history textbook. "Name the Elven King that waged war on the humans."

"King Haemir,” Louis replies instantly. 

"Correct. What year was the Treaty of Avelan written and signed?"

"It was written in 1843, but not signed until nearly fifteen years later due to disagreements over the the terms written in the treaty."

"Which were?" 

"The elves thought that humans retained too much power."

“And?” Harry prompts further.

"And what. That was the central issue.”

“You forgot that the Fairy King at the time refused to agree to any of the terms laid out. King Torsan didn't sign them because he was standing up for his people The elves and humans wanted much more of our resources than he was willing to sacrifice.”

“What?” Harry blinks confusedly a couple of times. He flips through a few pages of the textbook, his brows furrowed. "That's nowhere in this chapter."

"It's a well known fact," Louis replies dismissively, his eyes still glued to his computer screen. 

"No it isn't," Harry practically screeches. "King Torso, or whatever, isn't even named in this section. Where the hell did you get that from?" 

Louis finally looks up from his screen, only to find Harry staring back at him, completely bewildered. It's only then that he realizes his mistake. Louis thinks back to about a month ago in lecture, and remembers being absolutely livid that his grandfather hadn't even been mentioned by the professor. He had nearly interrupted the lecture to correct the man's mistake, but knew that it wouldn't do him any good, and his father would most likely hear about it one way or another. Louis racks his brain for an explanation to his slip up. He starts laughing loudly, effectively drawing attention from many other students around them.

"You should see your face right now! You look so freaked out!" 

Harry stares at Louis, completely dumbfounded. "Wait... that was a joke?"

"Of course!" Louis pretends to wipe away a tear from his eye. "What would I know about the   
Fairy King's stance on the Treaty of Avelan?!?" He laughs nervously.

"You can't do that!" Harry hisses. He throws an eraser at Louis. It hits his shoulder and falls to the table. "We have a midterm coming up and I can't have you filling my head with shit that isn't true!"

"Sorry, Haz." Louis says with a twinge of guilt. "I was just trying to lighten the mood."

Harry grabs a handful of his hair. "I just need to do really well on this test. I can't have my grades be shit my first term." Harry starts chewing on his bottom lip, his shoulders are tense and Louis can see a few beads of sweat begin to trickle down his temples. 

Louis reaches out and grabs Harry's right hand. "You're going to do just fine, Harry," Louis says in a serene voice. The spot where Louis and Harry are connected warms up for just a few seconds. Harry's shoulders almost instantly relax, and he drops his other hand from his hair with a calm sigh. He shakes his head, to clear it. 

"I feel a bit better now, thanks," Harry smiles. "You're amazing."

Normally Louis would have an incredibly witty remark, but he feels a bit nauseous and so he just gives Harry a half smile. What Harry doesn't know about his friends sudden mood change is that Louis absorbed his own anxiety. Louis' father always said he should be proud of his ability, and that not many people, even royals, have the power to take another’s emotions. Louis hates it, and out of all his God given magical abilities it's by far his least favorite. 

When his mother was sick all those years ago, there was one day he took away some of her pain, despite her pleas not to. Of course Louis didn't listen, and he felt sick to his stomach for a few hours with a massive headache to match. As soon as he felt well again, he went right back to her and tried again to take as much pain away from her as possible. He ended up fainting and woke up in his bed two days later. It was only a week later that his mother passed away. He still wishes he had been able to heal her, to take her suffering away completely. He only uses his power sparingly since then, always feeling somehow responsible for not being able to save his mother. 

"Louis!" Harry says loudly, effectively pulling him out of his thoughts. 

"What?' Louis replies in a bit of a daze. 

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah of course," Louis lies unconvincingly.

Harry closes his textbook. "We're done studying for today."

"No, no I’m fine Hazza. You gotta ace your exam." Louis protests weakly.

"You look like shit." Harry puts the last of his things into his knapsack and slings it over his shoulder as he stands up. 

"Well thanks for that." 

"C'mon, we're gonna go back to our room and have a good cuddle session, while we binge watch shitty television."

"Can we get some ice cream too?" Louis asks with an exaggerated pout.

Twenty minutes later Louis finds himself lying on his stomach on his small twin bed, with Harry next to him, watching How I Met Your Mother while shoveling chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in his mouth. He can still feel the effects of his magic, but with Harry next to him it doesn't matter quite as much. Only a few minutes into the second episode Louis drifts off. 

 

\---

 

Louis wakes up the next morning to find Harry lying next to him. The laptop is still open, but the battery is long dead. Louis closes the laptop quietly, not wanting to disturb Harry. He tries to roll out of bed, but finds it quite difficult with Harry wrapped around him like a koala, and his head resting on Louis’ chest. He decides to not get out of bed just yet. 

He’s no longer feeling the effect of his magic from yesterday and feels incredibly relieved. The effects always vary when he uses his power, but no matter what the discomfort lasts for a couple of hours, that is if he doesn’t pass out immediately from trying to take too much. He hadn't meant to absorb Harry's anxiety, but here they are. Louis spent a lot of his childhood figuring out his ability. It took much trial and error until he finally discovered that it only worked on people he was emotionally close to. So essentially he’s only able to use it on people that he loves. 

Sure, that doesn't necessarily means that Louis loves Harry in a romantic way, but if he is being completely honest with himself, he knows that he doesn't love Zayn the same way he loves Harry. For one, he's never wanted to kiss Zayn, in fact the thought of it make Louis feel a bit ill. Louis hasn't thought much about kissing Harry, but he's not completely repulsed by the idea so that must mean something right? 

Obviously Louis has thought about possibly having feelings for Harry. Their friendship so far has been pretty intense and Louis has definitely thought about their "wrestling" incident. As much as he would like to pretend that moment was completely platonic, it was far from it. So was just about every other aspect of their relationship. Louis has never really been super affectionate. Growing up, his father frowned upon it for some reason, even when his mother was still alive. 

Louis. reaches out for his phone, doing his best not to jostle Harry too much. The curly haired boy attempts to burrow his head even further into Louis' chest in his sleep. Louis can't help but laugh. 

"Mmmm. What are you laughing at?" Harry says without opening his eyes

"You," Louis replies with a large smile.

"Rude," Harry mumbles. 

"You're cute when you sleep."

Harry's eyes fly open, and his body stiffens ever so slightly. "What?"

"I mean you're cute all the time, but especially when you sleep."

"I should probably be creeped out by that, but I'm not."

“Would you like to go on a date with me?”

Harry stares at Louis, his mouth hanging wide open.

"Oh shit, should I not have asked that?

"No. No, I mean, yes I will go on a date with you."

“Great," Louis smiles.

"Great," Harry parrots.

\---

"Zayn, help me," Louis whines. "What the fuck should I wear?" 

"You've never cared about it before. Why start now?" Zayn says disinterestedly from his chair. 

"Because I've never been on a date before." Louis rifles through his hanging shirts, stops at a dark blue button up and shakes his head before starting his search again.

"What about the one with Lady Cordelia?" 

"You mean the most awkward lunch I've ever had in my life? That doesn't count. My father was setting us up for royal purposes."

"You mean courting her, then marrying her and having children eventually."

"You don't need to be quite so blunt about it,"

“All of Faefield has an interest in your sex life. You do need to have at least one heir. Unless you want your cousin to take the throne."

"Ugh don't remind me." 

"It is true though. And lord knows all of Faefield would despise you if you let that happen."

"Let's stop talking about him, he makes my skin crawl," Louis shivers and grabs two shirts and holds them up. "Which one?"

Zayn finally looks up from his book. "The red one."

Louis glances down at the maroon t-shirt. "Really? It's not too casual?"

"Harry's gonna love it trust me."

Louis lays both shirts on his bed, and quickly pulls on the red one. "You're not just messing with me right?" 

"Of course not."

"I really like him, Z," Louis says softly.

“I know," Zayn puts his book down and walks over to his friend. "You got this, mate."

"What if I screw up?"

"Harry is already head over heels for you. I don't know why, but he is. I'm pretty sure there's no way you can mess up tonight."

\---

"Oh my god I can't believe I forgot my wallet," Louis groans into his hands. 

"It's okay, Louis," Harry says reassuringly. They are currently outside the movie theater. After having a not so romantic dinner at the cafeteria they walked off campus to one of the movie theaters downtown. 

"No it's not. I've like totally ruined our date."

"It's seriously fine, Louis. We wouldn't have been able to talk during it anyway."

"You're just being nice."

"I am legitimately okay that we aren't seeing the movie."

"I can't-" Louis starts, Harry cuts him off by slapping a hand over his mouth. 

"I am not upset with you," Harry says while looking into Louis' eyes intently. "We can still have a good time tonight, okay?" Louis nods and Harry removes his hand slowly. "Let’s start walking around town and see what kind of mischief we can get into." Harry takes Louis' hand without question and starts walking further downtown. 

"I really am sorry," Louis says.

"If you try to apologize one more time, Louis I swear this date will be over,” Harry threatens. 

Louis stays silent for a few beats before admitting, "I just wanted this to be perfect is all."

"It's already perfect because I'm spending the night with you." Harry squeezes Louis' hand reassuringly. 

"This is my first date, like ever," Louis confesses. 

"Really? I didn't expect that. Figured you'd have everyone lining up."

"Well the lining up part is true, there have been plenty of people interested in me, but I've never really shown any interest back."

"Why's that?"

Louis pauses before responding. "My father usually introduced us, and honestly I could never tell if they were interested in me or just the thought of me."

"I'm sorry." Harry frowns.

"It's not like it's your fault.”

"No, but nobody should have to be scared of their potential partner only being interested for the wrong reasons. Why does your father force you to meet people you don't want to date?"

"For power. He wants to ensure that the, uh, company has a successful future, and that responsibility lands on me." Louis shrugs. 

"And you can't just say you don't want to follow in his footsteps." Harry states, already knowing the answer. 

"Yeah," Louis says resignedly.

They fall into a comfortable silence as they continue to walk, the city around them just starting to fill with people in a hurry to get home to their families. 

"I think it's kind of cool that you get to carry on a legacy though. Your dad must have a lot of trust in you to take over for him." 

"Ha," Louis responds drily. "He hasn't taught me anything about how to rule the people."

"I don't think you rule the people when you take over a company," Harry points out. 

"I didn't mean that literally, of course," Louis says quickly.

"Of course," Harry says with faux seriousness.

"I just meant that there are a lot of decisions that come with running a place and my father hasn't given me any sort of confidence that I can make the right decisions for the people- the employees- when push comes to shove."

"Well maybe you should talk to him outright about it."

“He barely has time for me.”

"Then make him make time for you. You deserve to be heard."

"Thanks, Harry," Louis smiles, and squeezes Harry's hand. "Ugh I'm so sorry that I unloaded all of that on you. So much for a perfect date."

"Hey stop that. This is absolutely perfect."

"Really?"

"Definitely. It feels really nice to actually hear you talk about your dad."

"Why?"

"It means you trust me," Harry shrugs. "The first time I brought up your dad, it didn't go very well."

"True."

"But now, the fact that you’re being so open about him just shows how far we've come. And I know that you feel comfortable sharing anything with me."

Louis feels a pang in his chest. Harry doesn't realize just how much of a lie that is, doesn't know that Louis is hiding a huge part of himself. God, Louis wants to tell Harry the truth, the thought has crossed his mind more than a few times throughout the term. Everytime he got close though, his common sense returned right in time, usually in the form of Zayn yelling at him for even considering it. Louis desperately wants Harry to know the truth, but he's in too deep at this point. If Harry were to find out the truth now, especially after they've gone on a date, he's only going to end up hurt. On the other hand, Louis wants Harry to continue to be a part of his life, and he honestly doesn't see how that's possible if Harry doesn't know the whole truth. Louis also doesn't see any way to tell him without hurting Harry in the process.

Before coming to Avelan he hadn't even considered what he would do in this situation. He wasn't even meant to get this close to other students. He was just meant to observe things from a distance, not fucking fall in love with his roommate. If they hadn't been roommates in the first place, they probably wouldn't have ended up where they are now. Things would be so much easier if they hadn't met, but even if Louis could change his experience, he wouldn't. Harry means too much to him, which is a bit scary to think about if Louis is being totally honest.

Even if Louis could change his experience in college, he wouldn't. There's no way in hell he's going to let Harry go, not if he can help it. 

"Earth to Louis!" Harry snaps his fingers in front of Louis' face a couple of times. "You okay?"

"Just peachy, Harold." Louis smiles shakily. 

"What were you thinking about?"

"Oh nothing," Louis waves his hand dismissively. "You know me, always have my head up in the clouds."

Harry throws his head back and laughs. Louis takes a mental note wanting to remember every detail of tonight. They walk in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes, the city bustling around them. 

"So, how is your revising coming along?" Harry asks.

"We are not talking about school right now!" Louis protests exasperatedly. 

"You never want to talk about school!" 

"Fair point, but I don't want talking about school to be what ruins this date."

"I'll let it slide this time, but only because you you're quite cute."

"Now that’s a valid argument. Is there anything that doesn't cost money that you'd like to do on this particularly beautiful evening. Harold?"

"Well there is this used bookstore I've always wanted to check out."

"Books, Harry, really? Everything to do in Avelan and you choose a bookstore?" 

"Yes! There are many, many people that actually enjoy reading."

"Why read when you can just watch the movie?"

"Because reading is good for your brain, and you can learn so many things from books!"

"The same thing can be said about movies."

"No, they aren't the same at all!" 

"Movies are shorter versions of the books," Louis argues. "I don't have the kind of time to waste on reading a book when I can just watch the movie instead."

"But there are so many things that don't make it into the movies!" 

"Clearly they weren't important enough to be included."

"It's not that they aren't important it's that the producers can't translate everything to screen. I will convince you that books are better."

"I don't think you can."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Definitely," Louis says with a smirk.

Harry drags Louis towards the bookstore more determined than ever to prove Louis wrong.

\--

“If you think I'm gonna read some old ass book just for you to win this argument you are dead fucking wrong." Louis shakes his head. He and Harry are stood in the back of a tiny bookstore that has a musty smell with a hint of old people. The shopkeeper is an incredibly old man who looks as if he might be dead. 

"This isn't just any old book. This is one of the most revered books of it's time." Harry says in awe. In front of them, behind a plastic case, is a small book. The cover is mostly purple and the spine is red.

"We can't even touch the book! What’s the point of us being here if we can't even touch it? Also if it's such a revered book why is there a copy in this crappy bookstore."

"It was a very popular series. Arnold's great-great grandfather owned all seven books in the series and he's held onto them." 

"I thought you hadn’t been to this book store before?"

"I never said that. You just assumed," Harry replies. Louis gives him a look and the other boy just shrugs. 

"What's so special about it?" Louis acquieses, trying to hide the fact that he's ever so slightly intrigued. 

"It tells the story of a young wizard defeating a great evil. It was written before humans were aware of the supernatural world, and some of the aspects of the world created by the author were accurate about all the things the humans at the time thought were just fairy tales."

"Okay that is kind of cool." Louis admits. "But why this book? All the movies are going to be extremely old and probably difficult to get our hands on."

"They had digital files at the time, and I know they have some at the library. Along with copies of the books with translated text.”

"You're really going to make me read a centuries old book just to win this argument?"

"Yep," Harry says with a shit eating grin. 

Louis groans frustratedly. He has absolutely no doubt in his mind that Harry will actually force him to follow through. 

"Oh it won't be that bad," Harry adds reassuringly as he pats Louis on the back.

"You're lucky I like you." Louis shoots Harry a look.

\---

They end up spending a little over an hour in the bookstore. The time is mostly spent with Harry finding one book after another and going on and on about each one. Louis is actually kind of amazed that Harry knows so much about so many different books. Louis loves to see the way Harry lights up as he talks about each story. Every synopsis he gives starts out concise, but after only a couple of minutes, he begins to get sidetracked and brings in subplots that just make it more confusing for Louis to follow, but Louis just nods and tries his best to follow along, hoping that Harry won't end up quizzing him about what he's talked about. 

They both become so wrapped up in each other that eventually Arnold has to ask them to leave so he can close up. Both boys apologize profusely and hurry outside. The sky is dark now, and the streets are much less crowded.

"Oh wow, I didn't even realize how late it was," Louis says. 

"It's always a good sign if you lose track of time on a date.” 

"I suppose so," Louis smiles softly. 

As they start back to their dorm, Louis looks up at the night sky, trying to find his favorite constellation, The Big Dipper. He can't see the constellations as well as he can back in Faefield. Since he was a young boy, he's been completely enamored with astronomy. It was one of the very first things he learned about. Before technology became such a prominent part of life, the fairies would use the stars to guide them, as well as help them predict the future and a myriad of other things Louis can barely remember. There’s just something about looking up at the night sky and realizing just how small you are in the universe.

"Let's go this way," Louis gently tugs on Harry’s arm.

"But campus is the other way,"

"I know. But there's this park I think you might like.”

"Okay."

The park is empty when they arrive a few minutes later, just like Louis figured it would be. The park is fairly small, it’s about the size of a football pitch, but it reminds Louis of home. The one downside of living in an urban area is the lack of nature. Louis grew up completely surrounded by it and even being in a small place like this makes him feel more connected to his roots. He pulls Harry onto the grass walking until they are in the middle of the park. He promptly lays down and pats the space next to him.

"What are you doing?" Harry laughs. 

"Looking at the stars obviously." 

Harry glances up at the night sky, then back down to Louis before lying down on the grass too.

"So are we looking for anything particular?"

Louis moves his head quickly to look at Harry. "Have you never been stargazing before?" he asks incredulously.

"I can't say that I have. I've spent time looking at them before, but haven't actually done this." Harry gestures vaguely.

"You've always struck me as the kind of person who would love to admire the stars." Louis looks back at the sky. "They don't look quite as nice here as they do back home. Too many people, and lights." 

"They still look beautiful," Harry says, not looking at the sky anymore. 

"You aren't even looking at them," Louis looks at Harry.

"Well that's because you're beautiful too, and I could honestly just sit here and admire you for ages."

Louis' breath catches in his throat. They lock eyes and suddenly the world around Louis disappears, it's just the two of them. There’s a glint there telling Louis that Harry is being honest. 

Before Louis knows it Harry slowly leans down and kisses him. The kiss is chaste and only lasts a few seconds, but it still knocks the breath out of Louis. 

"Was that okay?" Harry worries on his bottom lip.

Louis doesn't say anything in response, instead he reaches up, grabs Harry's face and pulls him down for another kiss. Louis feels like a livewire, he swears he can feel every atom of his being. Everything else in the world has lost all meaning, It's just him and Harry; the apocalypse could start and Louis would happily die in this park right now, with Harry. By the time Harry pulls back, every so slightly, both of them are gasping for air. 

"Was that okay?" Louis asks with a shit eating grin. 

Harry only nods.Somehow Harry has ended up straddling Louis. 

"Can we do more of that?" Harry asks still a bit breathless.

"Of course," Louis reaches up and tucks a stray curl behind Harry's ear. maybe we could go back to our room though.”

Harry gets up faster than Louis has ever seen the boy move before.

\---

 

The following week Louis feels like he's walking on air. Despite all of his midterms he isn't too worried about them. Every minute he's not revising with Harry they're making out. It really helps that they can simply go back to their dorm room rather than having to find odd places to get their fix, which doesn't stop them. Sometimes they just can't help themselves and will find a random closet or go to a deserted part of the stacks in the library to kiss. About the only time they actually try to keep their hands to themselves is when they're with their friends. At the beginning of the week Niall, Liam, and Zayn were fine with the PDA, but after only a day they ban Harry and Louis from anything more than holding hands, with their hands in plain sight.

 

Not even Zayn's sour mood can get Louis down. Louis isn't one hundred percent sure why his best mate is acting so strange lately, but he's pretty sure it has something to do with Harry. Louis knows it most likely has something to do with the fact that he doesn't approve of Louis starting this relationship with Harry. Louis has ignored all of Zayn's texts and calls about needing to talk, and he's gone out of his way to avoid Zayn as much as possible, not wanting to allow any intrusions into his and Harry’s zone. He's just so happy right now, and he knows that once his bubble is burst he's just going to feel guilty about lying to Harry. Louis just wants to be in the honeymoon phase for as long as possible.

But for now he's content with the way things are, and doesn't want them to change at all. 

"Hey there," Harry says from where he's watching Netflix on his bed as Louis enters their room. "How'd your midterm go?" 

"It was good I think." Louis sets down his knapsack by his own bed, then quickly joins Harry on his bed and gives him a quick kiss. "I just wish the class wasn't so bloody late. I've been revising all day and feel totally exhausted."

"Well when you have a class taught by a vampire it kind of needs to be at night." 

“I know that, I just wanted to complain," Louis pouts. Harry kisses his temple as a consolation. "What are we watching?"

"Documentary about penguins."

"Learn anything interesting?" Louis rests his head on Harry's shoulder. 

"They have special glands in their eyes that help filter out salt water.”

"Wow. That’s interesting," Louis yawns. 

"Let's watch the rest tomorrow," Harry shuts the laptop, and leans over to put it on his desk. 

"No, no. I'm not tired." Louis says, his eyes already closed. 

"You're a terrible liar."

'M not," Louis mumbles. 

"Of course not," Harry acquiesces. "C'mon let's lay down."

Harry helps Louis under the covers, then gets under them himself. Louis immediately curls up into Harry's side and falls asleep in seconds. 

 

\---

 

The next morning, Louis wakes up to find Harry wrapped around him once again. The weight of the boy against him in the morning is starting to feel like the most natural thing in the world. Louis maneuvers his free arm to grabs his phone and checks the time. It's ten minutes to noon already. His heart begins to race and he jostles Harry awake. 

"Lou?" Harry asks groggily as he rubs his eyes. 

"I gotta get up Hazza," Louis untangles himself from Harry's limbs as quickly as possible. 

"What for? We don't have class." Harry says through a yawn and sits up slowly. 

"I totally blanked on an assignment that's due in like thirty minutes," Louis replies quickly as he looks through his trouser drawer for a vial of the potion he needs to take in the next seven minutes. He ends throwing each pair of trousers behind him haphazardly. 

"Why are you looking through your trousers for an assignment?"

Louis doesn't respond. and lets out a loud groan when he finds that he doesn't find an potion. He glances at his phone. Four minutes. He quickly calls Zayn, only for it go to directly to voicemail. 

"Shit." Louis pinches the bridge of his nose as he tries to think of what to do. 

"Louis?" 

"Not now Harry," Louis snaps. He rushes out of the room and runs down the hall. He takes the stairs two steps at a time. By the time he's at Zayn and Liam's door he's out of breath. Louis pounds on the door to no avail. He pulls his phone out of his pocket frantically and watches it turn noon. Fuck. He sits down and leans against the door, setting his phone next to him on the floor. He feels his back starting to tingle, but isn't sure if it's actually tingling or just in his head. He really does not need this. At least Zayn isn't here to chew him out about being totally irresponsible, and blah blah blah. Louis can hear the inevitable lecture in his head already. He certainly won't be able to hide this from Zayn forever though. 

Louis doesn't move as the tingling sensation begins to increase and a heat starts from where his wings normally attach to his back, and blooms throughout his body. He needs to get somewhere private, fast. Stenya didn't say just how long the process would take, but obviously he can't be out in the open as he starts to grow wings. He lets out a loud groan as the heat nearly doubles, and now feels like he's being burned. Louis reaches for his phone. He brings the phone up to his face, but finds that he can't see the screen at all, his vision has started to get blurry. He presses the button on the side of his phone to bring up Siri. 

"Call Harry," he says into the speaker. Louis isn't sure how many times it rings before Harry answers.

"Louis?" 

"Haz..." Louis groans. 

"Louis what’s wrong?" Harry asks, clearly panicking. 

"Upstairs..." 

"What?"

"Help," Louis whines. 

"I'm coming, Lou. I'll be right there." The line goes dead. Louis closes his eyes and what feels like hours later he opens them to find Harry rushing down the hall. 

"Oh my god, Louis!" Harry shouts. 

Harry throws an arm over Louis’ shoulder and helps him stand up. Louis let’s out a scream at the contact. 

“You’re going to be okay, Louis. I can get you to a hospital.” Harry helps Louis down the hallway.

“No,” Louis protests weakly, he tries to push Harry away. “Zayn...” 

“I tried him.”

“Bed...Zayn...Wings...”

“You’re not making any sense Louis,” Harry gasps, exasperated.

“Bed, bed, bed,” Louis chants nonsensically. 

“Okay, we’ll get you to bed.” 

Harry struggles getting Louis down the stairs, but manages and somehow gets Louis into his bed. 

Louis tugs at his shirt collar insistently. Harry gets the hint and takes Louis’ shirt off. Louis immediately rolls into his stomach and Harry let’s out a loud gasp. 

\---

 

The next thing Louis knows, he's lying on his stomach in his own bed. How in the hell did he get here? The last thing he remembers he was outside of Zayn’s room. The first thing he notices, is the pain he felt before passing out is gone. The next thing he realizes is he's shirtless, and his wings are resting against his back. He flutters them a few times, reveling in how good it feels.

"Good. You're awake." Zayn says curtly, from across the room.

"Oh hey." Louis turns onto his side to face Zayn.

"Well?" Zayn taps his foot impatiently. 

"Thank you for taking care of me," Louis says with a smile that he hopes conveys that he's sorry. 

"Really? No apology for the shit you just pulled?"

"Yeah about that," Louis pinches the bridge of his nose.

"The only thing that should be coming out of your mouth right now is a fucking apology."

"I am sorry," Louis says quietly. 

Zayn stands up with a flourish and takes a couple of steps towards Louis; bed. "Really?! That's all you have to say?"

"What else do you want me to fucking say?" Louis sits up all the way.

"Maybe that you're sorry for being an idiot and forgetting to take your potion and almost exposing us in the process?"

"Do you really think that I'm not thinking the exact same things you are?" Louis gets out of bed and stare so down Zayn.

"You should be!" Zayn throws his arms up in the air in frustration.

"And I definitely am! You know how much this whole thing means to me. I wouldn't have   
intentionally done anything to jeopardize this!"

"Well you did! Harry knows!" 

"What?" Louis' anger disappears and he takes a step back.

"Yeah. He knows about both of us. You're lucky I haven't told your father yet!"

"What did he- How-- Is he okay?" Louis stare at the ground 

"Your father?"

"No, no." Louis shakes his head vehemently. Louis looks up at Zayn and can feel his eyes start to water. "Harry."

"About as well as you'd expect," Zayn says with much less bite. "He's kinda freaked out."

"Freaked out how?" Louis implores.

"I mean as freaked out as anyone would be when they find out that they're kinda sorta dating a   
fairy, who they thought was human."

"So he's mad."

"Definitely upset."

"I gotta find him." Louis steps towards the door, biz Zayn blocks him.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"What do you mean? I have to explain."

"For one, you still have your wings." Louis looks behind his shoulder, like he needs to check that Zayn was telling the truth. "Secondly, you have to give him space."

"But, how am I meant to apologize?" Louis asks desperately. 

"You don't. Not yet anyway. He obviously needs time to process the fucking truth!"

“You don't think I should be there to help him through that?"

"Mate, I'm pretty fucking sure you’re the last person he wants to see right now. He took most of his stuff and told me we were switching rooms."

"I can't lose him Zayn."

"You might, and can you honestly blame him if he doesn't forgive you?"

"I don't think I could live in a world with him being mad at me forever. I care about him Zayn, like a lot.”

"I know," Zayn sighs and sits down next to Louis. "You're not exactly the best at hiding your emotions." 

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing bad. Just that you literally look at him like the sun shines out his arse, all the time. Even before you got together."

"I do not," Louis huff indignantly. 

"You do though. He makes you happy. Happier than I've seen you in a long, long time."

"Well, I guess love does that."

"You think you love him already?" Zayn probes. 

"I absorbed some of his emotions last week," Louis explains.

"Wow."

"Yeah.” They sit in silence for a few minutes, both of them caught up in their own thoughts. "So are you going to tell my father?"

“I definitely should. He'll kill me if I don't."

"He shouldn't be so hard on you."

"He's only hard on me because I'm out here with you. I mean you are the heir to the throne. If I wasn't, he wouldn't pay me any mind. He cares about you.” 

"He has a funny way of showing it."

"He has a lot of stuff going on being king and all. He's under a lot of stress. 

"Yeah." Louis sighs. 

Louis knows his father needs to be told that he accidentally revealed his true identity, but he also knows it should not be Zayn who tells him.

"I'm going back to Faefield." Louis says decisively.

"Why?"

"I need to tell my father that someone knows who I really am." 

"He'll make you stay there forever!"

"Maybe not if I own up to my mistake. It was one person, and I know that even if Harry is mad at me he wouldn't tell anyone."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I have faith in him,” Louis says resolutely. “Did you bring anything for wings? I'm not flying all the way back home just to get windburn." Zayn rolls his eyes, but grabs a navy blue tunic from his bag on Harry's bed. "You're the best." 

"How long to you think are you going to be gone?" Zayn asks as Louis puts on the tunic. 

"Not sure. Depends on how angry my father is."

"Well I'll hope to see you in another decade then."

"Don't hold your breath, mate,” Louis chuckles humorlessly. 

Zayn pulls Louis into a tight hug. "Seriously though, if you're not back in a couple of days I will personally break you out of the castle."

"I'm holding you to that. Would love to see you commit treason for me." Louis pats Zayn’s back a couple times. 

"I'd do much worse." Zayn pulls back and looks Louis square in the eye. 

"I know," Louis replies. "I'd better go now." Louis opens the window and sits on the ledge, and takes in the view, for what he assumes is the last time. 

"You don't have to."

"You know I do. It'll only be worse if I wait.” 

Louis pushes himself off without another word and flies off.

 

\---

 

The flight to Faefield only takes about thirty minutes. As he flies, Louis formulates what he's going to say to his father. Other than an explanation of what happened, he's not entirely certain about anything else, he probably won't be able to get a word in edgewise after that anyway. 

When the urban landscape disappears and nature becomes more abundant, Louis knows he's getting close and a pit begins to grow in his stomach. He slows down a bit, attempting to prolong whatever is about to happen as much as possible. Every fiber of his being is screaming to turn around, but he knows this is the right thing to do. 

When Louis spots the front gate of Faefield he begins his descent. He lands gracefully about ten meters away from the gate and walks the rest of the way. The guard in the tower seems to be baffled at the sight of Louis, but quickly opens the gate once he realizes who it is. Louis thanks the guard and takes a determined breath before entering Faefield. 

Louis continues to walk into the city, his wings still a bit sore from his flight and overall lack of use the past few months. 

The market is incredibly busy right now, everyone is haggling over good prices for the ingredients that will make their dinner tonight. In just an hour or so, the streets will be deserted as everyone goes home to enjoy dinner with their family. Louis imagines a cozy kitchen with everyone helping to prepare the meal. He imagines a mother teaching her child how to chop vegetables without hurting themselves. He's not sure if he's actually remembering his own mother teaching him, or simply imagining what an actual family meal would be like. 

As Louis walks through the market, people recognize him immediately and bow as he passes by. He ignores them - his father is the one who wants all of his subjects to adore him and show it every time they are even near the King. Louis doesn't care about the formalities of it all, but no matter how much he asks everyone to stop bowing they don't listen to him. Maybe they’re too scared or simply too used to the way things are. 

Louis spots the castle about a mile away. It's hard not to miss since it's a five story building in one of the oldest and tallest trees. As he gets closer to the castle, a pit grows in his stomach again. With each step he takes, he loses confidence in his plan and fights the incredibly strong urge to turn around. He needs to make his father see him for the responsible adult he is. 

He stands at the base of the massive tree holding his home and truly feels insignificant as he looks up at the structure. He takes a deep breath, knowing that this is really the point of no return, and flies up to the front door, landing gently on the platform connecting the castle to a bridge. Louis nods at the guards as they hold the doors open for him. He doesn't know how to feel about being back honestly. It feels familiar of course, but he no longer feels like he truly belongs here. Not that he ever really felt that way before, but at least in Avelan he knows he fits in. His father had never done much to make the castle feel like a home after Louis’ mother died. 

Louis stops in the large foyer and thinks about where he might find his father. He takes the first right and heads towards the throne room. It's not likely that his father will be in there, but he might as well work his way from the first floor and then go up. As Louis expects, the throne room is void of people. Louis spends about thirty minutes wandering the castle in search of his father, even checking the kitchen and adding a quick trip to the stables, just to be thorough. Eventually he finds his father in his private study on the third floor.

The guards outside the door bow their heads in acknowledgement, but don't move otherwise. Louis stands in front of the door for a few seconds before knocking.

"Come in," his father says loudly. Louis opens the door and quickly steps inside. His father peers up at him from his desk in the middle of the room. "What are you doing here, son?" The king returns to the document he's pouring over.

"It's good to see you too, father." 

King Gaelin sighs loudly, sets down his pen, and pushes his work away from him. "I'm quite busy at the moment."

Louis swallows he witty remark on his tongue. "I just need a minute, sir." 

"Very well." The King gestures for Louis to sit down. Louis does so. "So what is it you have to tell me?"

"I wanted you to hear it from me..." Louis trails off.

"Hear what? Spit it out," King Gaelin barks. 

"Someone found out my true identity," Louis blurts out. 

King Gaelin stays silent for a few seconds befote saying, "Explain" in a calm voice. 

Louis hesitates before responding, his father isn't usually calm about this kind of things "I mean that I forgot to take my potion and my human roommate saw my wings growing back."

"I see."

"Is that all you have to say?" Louis asks in disbelief. 

"I knew this would happen sooner or later." The King returns his attention to his papers. 

"You just assumed I would fail at keeping this secret then did you?" Anger blooms in Louis' chest, he doesn't know where it's coming from. He came here to be open with his father, not start the same fight they've had a million times over the years. But apparently his father didn't even believe in him from the beginning. 

"I didn't say that," the King replies curtly. 

"You never had to. You always made it abundantly clear you prefer your work over me." Louis spits out. 

"Watch your mouth, boy." King Gaelin stands up and leans on the desk. 

"Or what? You'll ground me? Disown me? Despite what you may think I'm not a child anymore!"

"Then why do you still act like one?"

"I've never had to grow up because you refuse to give me anything that even closely resembles responsibility!" Louis jumps up. 

"You never proved that you could handle it!" 

"Well how would you even know if you never gave me a fucking chance?!" His father opens his mouth to say something, but Louis doesn't stop speaking. "You never bothered to make time for me, even before mum died. The most time we have ever spent together, without other people around, is when we eat together. Which is maybe three hours a day, and that's only if we don't have some sort of benefit to go to or you have some dinner with another politician that you won't let me join! And for the life of me I don't know why! I mean I am going to rule one day and I need to know how. Yet you never bothered to show me! So someday when you're dead and I'm on the throne I won't know how to govern our people properly and they will only have you to blame, and I hope that you can live the rest of your days knowing that." 

Louis gasps for air, feeling winded. His father stares at him, and before he can say anything in response Louis turns around and leaves. 

Once Louis’ out of the study, the full weight of what he just did hits him. He really did that. He just yelled at his father, the King. He's definitely going to be in trouble and he'll certainly never see outside these four walls again. The odds of him being on house arrest until he's one hundred is highly likely. Without realizing it, Louis makes his way to the infirmary. A visit with Stenya is sure to make him feel better. 

Louis doesn't bother knocking and simply opens the door to Stenya's workplace. Inside, Stenya is standing at her work bench mixing a black as night liquid with neon green sludge in a beaker. 

"Should you really be playing with those?" Louis asks cheekily. Stenya jumps about a foot in the air, nearly spilling both substances. She sets them down quickly and whirls around to face Louis. 

"You're back!" she shouts gleefully. She takes a few steps to meet Louis. She immediately wraps him in a tight embrace which Louis reciprocates. "I missed you so much, darling."

"Me too." Before Louis knows it he's sobbing into Stenya's shoulder. 

"Oh there, there, dear." Stenya rubs his back soothingly. "It's alright. Let it out."

They stand there for what seems like ages. Louis doesn't say anything, he doesn't think he could even if he wanted to. Stenya continues to console him with comforting words. Eventually Louis's sobs turn into tiny sniffles and he takes a step back as he wipes his nose. 

"I'm sorry." Louis says to the floor, not wanting her to see him all gross and snotty. 

"You have nothing to be sorry about, Louis," Stenya replies with a soft reassuring voice. "Would you like to talk about it?" Stenya leads Louis over to the small table she has in the corner.

"Sure." Louis nods. 

As they walk over to the table it's empty, but when they sit down a piping hot tea kettle and two cups and saucers are waiting for them. Stenya pours Louis a cup and revels in the warmth it gives to his hands. "So it all started this morning...”

\---

Louis tells Stenya everything that's happened in the last few months of his life. He had only meant to tell her about the recent drama, but it felt so nice to be able to gush about everything that he's experienced in Avelan. Stenya listens intently to every word Louis says, and reacts at all the right times and in all the right ways. Louis feels incredibly lucky to have her in his life, and honestly doesn't know where he'd be today without her. 

"Well, dear, it sounds like you should apologize to your father," Stenya says bluntly, as she takes a sip of tea. 

"I know," Louis replies, staring into his teacup. "I'm terrified of what he's going to do though."

"I think you'll see he's a very sensible man."

"Yeah right," Louis snorts.

"I think, perhaps, your -ah- message to him, might have finally hit home. That he actually heard you."

"I think the only thing he's going to take away from our conversation is that I'm an insolent son who doesn't deserve the throne."

"We'll just have to see won't we." Stenya says as if she knows exactly what the king is thinking. She sets down her empty cup. "Are you going to be staying in Faefield for long?"

"It's too late to fly back tonight. I hate flying in the dark. I'll definitely wait 'til the morning, but beyond that I don't know." Louis rubs the back of his neck. 

"Perhaps your father would be willing to talk at breakfast tomorrow." Stenya waves her hand and all evidence of their tea party disappears in the blink of an eye. 

"I'm not ready to face him yet, and don't think I will be by tomorrow either." Louis shakes his head as he stands up. 

”You should apologize to him before the week is through ," Stenya advises. 

"Yeah," Louis sighs "Thank you for everything," Louis hugs Stenya again. 

"You're very welcome, dear," Stenya pulls back and cups Louis' face in her hands. "Anytime you need anything, you come to me, okay?"

"Of course."

"Good boy," Stenya pats Louis' cheeks once, then drops her arms. "Go. Get some rest, it's been a long day for you."

"M'kay," Louis hums and goes to his room, only half-awake, and getting there on muscle memory alone. He falls asleep before his head even hits the pillow. 

\---

Louis wakes up to the sun streaming through all of the windows because he forgot to close his curtains last night. Louis checks his phone only to find the battery dead. Go figure. He gets out of bed and walks over to one of his windows. Judging by the sky, he figures it's probably still early, and that most of Faefield is still asleep. Instead of going back to sleep, Louis decides to take a shower. The water pressure is absolutely magnificent compared to the shitty shower heads of the communal showers in Eldroth Hall. Louis lets the water run and just pour over his body, reveling in the way that it almost hurts. He feels like he could stay in there all day, just hiding away from all his problem; letting them disappear on their own. The only reason Louis doesn't stay in the shower forever is because eventually the hot water runs out. 

He reluctantly steps out of the shower and dries himself off with a towel before wrapping it around his waist. Once he's dry he goes to his closest and picks out a moss colored tunic and matching trousers. 

Louis makes the decision to go back to Avelan. He could probably skip a few days since midterms just finished, but decides against it in the end. He doesn't want to hang around the castle just waiting for his father to eventually find him and chew him out. Of course, things will probably be just as awkward at university, but at least there he'll be surrounded by his friends. Well, Zayn at the very least. Before he leaves he visits Stenya for a few vials of potion. He promises Stenya he'll take it as soon as he gets back to his dorm. Louis leaves Faefield right after saying goodbye to Stenya, hoping not to accidentally run into his father's guards, or worse his father. 

-

When Louis enters his dorm room, he’s ambushed by Zayn.

"How'd it go?" 

"Fine." Louis shrugs.

"Just fine?"

"Look, I don't really want to talk about it, right now." Louis runs a weary hand down his face.

"That bad?"

"You could say that."

Zayn doesn't pry anymore, for which Louis is extremely grateful. All of the bones in his body seem to ache, and even though Louis only woke up an hour ago, he only wants to sleep, so he gets into his bed and closes his eyes. After a few minutes Louis hears the door open and close. He slowly opens his eyes to find Zayn gone and lets out a sigh of relief.

\---

The next week is absolute torture for Louis. Harry still isn't speaking to him. Whenever Louis sees Harry anywhere on campus, the curly haired boy immediately turns and walks in the opposite direction. Louis spends all of his lectures craning his neck attempting to find Harry like a Where's Waldo image. Eventually Louis will find him in the crowd, but when class is over he disappears into the sea of students again. 

Meals are probably his least favorite time of the day though. Rather than all five of them having lunch or dinner together, they do it in shifts now. Harry obviously refuses to eat with Louis, so Louis ends up eating with Zayn and sometimes Niall. Liam doesn't know the whole truth of what happened, and Louis is thankful one of his friends is oblivious to the drama going on.

Louis finds his energy at an all time low. He doesn't feel like doing much of anything if he's being honest, so he spends most of his free time watching old shows on Netflix and skips class at least once a day. He doesn’t even bother showering every day. 

It's not until the eighth day of moping that Louis finally snaps out of his funk. He's not sure why. He still feels terrible that Harry isn't speaking to him, but for some reason it's a bit more bearable. As for his father, he figures he has all the time in the world to apologize to him. Louis actually wakes up in time for his ten o'clock lecture today. He's pulling on a shirt when Zayn barges into their room panting heavily.

“What’s the matter with you, mate? Did you just take the stairs?" Louis jokes. 

Zayn rests his hands on his knees and shakes his head. 

"Are you okay, though? Like for real?" 

"Your father..." Zayn says between breaths.

"Is terrible. I know.” Louis says dismissively

Zayn stands up, his breathing finally returning to normal.

"No. Louis, he's dead."

"Ha, that's a good one," Louis chuckles. "Can you imagine?”

"No, he's actually dead. He’s gone. I’m so sorry.”

Louis looks Zayn in the eye and sees an immense sadness, but mostly he sees the truth reflected back at him. 

"No, no, no..." Louis chants. He walks backwards until the back of his knees touch the edge of his bed and he falls onto it. Zayn sits next to him, not sure what he should say, if he should say anything at all. 

“How?” Louis eventually chokes out.

“They didn’t say.” 

“Who told you?”

“Your father’s junior advisor, Fynn. He’s sending a car to take us back home.”

"If we had our wings we wouldn't have to wait," Louis stands up and starts pacing from one side of the room to the other. 

Zayn doesn't respond. 

"How could this have happened? I mean Faefield is well protected. He's well protected."

"You don't know for sure that he was assassinated," Zayn points out. 

Louis shoots him a withering glare. "Well I highly doubt he just died in his sleep. He is - I mean, was, healthy. The only rational explanation is that he was killed." 

Zayn doesn't want to admit that Louis is right, but it is rare for fairies to die at an early age. Fairies have an incredible immune system and don't get sick as easily as humans do. They also have a myriad of potions and medicines that can heal just about anything. The fact that Louis' mother passed away so young is still a bit of an anomaly.

"Did they say how long for the car?" Louis practically snaps.

"About half an hour. Traffic is backed up."

"We're not waiting that long." Louis grabs his phone and types furiously. 

"A taxi will take nearly as long as the towncar."

"We're not taking a car, we're taking a dragon."

—-

Just a few minutes later, Louis and Zayn exit their building with haphazardly packed knapsacks. A large blue dragon is waiting for them. Louis quickly climbs the ladder, followed by Zayn, in order to get to the saddle placed on the dragon’s back. As soon as they are settled, Zayn tells the dragon where they are going and the dragon takes off into the sky.

Louis doesn’t say anything during their ride, his head is a giant mess of emotions and thoughts swirling around. Nothing about this seems real. He honestly doesn’t know what to feel right now. The overwhelming emotion he has at the moment is simply numb. 

This whole thing feels like a dream, or rather a nightmare. There’s a part of his brain that still hopes this is all just some elaborate prank cooked up that’s meant to scare him. But he knows that’s not the case. Zayn wouldn’t do that to him, despite Louis’ contentious relationship with his father he still cared about him. The man was his father after all. Everyone has a rocky relationship with their father at some point. 

Everything about their relationship was so much more intense than a normal father-son relationship though. Most of the time Louis’ father wasn’t able to just be his father, he had to act as King too. Unfortunately being King was a much more important role than father, something that Louis will one day learn about when he has children of his own down the road. He vows here and now, to be a better father than his own was. He'll actually take time out of his schedule to see them, and hopefully make them feel like they can come to him with any sort of problem, and not feel like they have to hide anything from him. Most of all he wants them to feel loved, something that has been severely lacking in Louis' life for a long time. His father was always so closed-off, Louis could never read him, never know what he was thinking besides the near disapproval for practically everything Louis did. 

Louis was never able to live up to his father's expectations of what a prince should be, and now that he's gone Louis is meant to fill the role of King despite having no idea how. If he couldn't be a prince right, how on Earth was he expected to be a King? Louis' coronation may not be for a few more weeks, but he has already been forced into the role of King, and he honestly couldn't be more terrified. He was never expecting to inherit the throne this early on in life, the youngest king before himself was already 99 years old. Louis is still just a child in the eyes of many fairies, just a young boy who's only a quarter of the way through his life, and an irresponsible trickster to boot. 

The numbness disappears and anger takes its place. Everything he yelled at his father a week ago still rings true now. He was supposed to teach Louis so many things about life, and the kingdom, and everything. And, just like everything else in Louis' life, his father assumed he wasn't responsible enough to handle Princely duties regularly. Yet he never gave Louis the chance to prove himself, or better yet simply force the responsibility on him learn and adapt under the pressure. Instead Louis' father left his son unprepared to take the throne and, in the process, failing his subjects. 

Of course his father also left Louis behind. Though he may be an adult, Louis is now an orphan, both of his parents are gone, and that makes him feel incredibly lonely for some reason. He's had plenty of time to come to terms with his mother's death, and he's obviously thought about his father passing away, but not like this, not so soon. He was never able to show his father his full potential, and now he never will. Louis' last words to his father were spiteful half truths, meant to make him finally give Louis what he wanted. Louis supposes that, in a way, he has the responsibility he wanted, there's just no safety net to catch him when he stumbles. 

"Louis.” Zayn says softly, as he shakes Louis lightly. 

Louis blinks slowly a few times. "Huh?"

"We're here." 

"Oh." 

Zayn holds out a hand to help Louis up. Louis takes it gratefully. Louis grabs his knapsack and looks down at the ladder.

"I don't think I can do this," Louis admits shakily.

"You have to," Zayn replies sadly. He hates seeing his best friend like this and can't even imagine the pain he must be feeling right now. 

"What if I don't?”

“You have to put on a brave face for your subjects now, Louis." 

Louis takes a deep breath and descends the ladder. Once he's on the ground, he gives his knapsack to Zayn who takes it silently. Louis is about to see his subjects for the first time as their King, and he must present himself as such. He takes a second to magic all of his clothes to black, and does the same for Zayn. He's sure his hair looks absolutely awful and runs his hands through it a couple of times to make it look slightly presentable. Louis smooths out invisible wrinkles on his shirt before lifting his head high and beginning his walk to the castle. 

As Louis walks through Faefield the city is crowded, but it is also eerily quiet. The worst part of it is that every eye is on him. His subjects want to see their new leader being strong at such a tumultuous time. Something Louis is already finding extremely difficult. 

How is he meant to grieve his father as the public watches like vultures for any sign of weakness from their King? Louis doesn't want to parade through the town to be gawked at like some freak show attraction. What he really wants is the privacy to cry from the flood of emotions he's feeling, but now is not the time nor the place. 

Eventually Louis makes it into the castle and crumples to the floor as soon as the doors shut behind him. Zayn rushes to his side. 

"Are you alright?" Zayn asks fervently. 

"Just want to be alone," Louis groans.

"I know." Zayn rubs Louis' back soothingly. "You did great out there."

"Sleep," Louis mumbles. 

"There are numerous preparations that must be made today, Your Majesty," someone says from the opposite side of the foyer. 

Louis glances up to see Fynn, the junior advisor, standing with his hands clasped behind his back. 

Anger immediately rises up within Louis. He stands up quickly takes a few purposeful steps towards the young advisor. "The preparations for my father's funeral can wait until tomorrow."

"But, Sir," Fynn starts. Louis gives him a challenging look. "Very well, Your Majesty, I will let Valiel know.'

"Do that. And do tell him that I wish to speak with him after breakfast tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Sir." 

"Very good. You may go now." Louis waves his hand dismissively and Fynn scurries away. As soon as he’s out of sight, Louis' bravado disappears once again. "Zayn, tell the kitchen I want dinner in my room tonight.”

Louis doesn't wait for a response before going to his room. 

\---

The next few days fly by as Louis is shepherded from one task to the next, including funeral preparations along with most of his new Kingly duties. For the next five days, he is only responsible for his duties pertaining to Faefield. Everything that has to do with Avelan and the other rulers is at a standstill. 

Louis doesn't think it's nearly enough time, especially since he can barely keep up with everything that Valiel is throwing his way. He always knew this would be a difficult transition, but the level of stress he's under is so much more than he ever imagined. He reminds himself to change the laws about a proper mourning period for his descendants. 

Oh god. Descendants. Why on earth is he thinking about children right now? He knows why, but on top of everything else he has going for him right now, finding a suitable partner is not at the top of his list. It should honestly not even be registering right now, but it is a bit difficult considering that he's been told the importance of finding someone to have children with for as long as he can remember. And the thing is, he found someone he wants to be with. Of all the girls thrown his way all throughout his life, he's gone and fallen in love with a human boy. Louis knows his father would disapprove of Harry, his first problem would be the fact that Harry is a human, and not the fact that he couldn't possibly bear children for the throne. Of course, Louis doesn't even have to worry about that battle with his father anymore, but he still finds himself forming an argument in his head to defend Harry. 

Not that Harry is even really a concern of his anymore. Despite that, Louis finds himself thinking about Harry in the spare moments he has to breathe. He thinks about Harry's dimples and the way his eyes light up when he's talking about something he loves. Louis misses Harry so much, his body aches with longing. It feels like a lifetime ago that Harry discovered Louis' secret. Louis doesn't even need for Harry to love him, he just needs Harry around to brighten up his day and generally make Louis' life better. He doesn't think he can go back to a life without Harry's infectious personality lighting up every room he enters. 

"Your Majesty, I need you to sign this document," Fynn interrupts, holding out a clipboard. 

Louis stares up at him, doing his best to convey his annoyance at the interruption. Louis takes the clipboard and begins reading the document. Once he's certain he's not signing away his soul or anything too outrageous he quickly scrawls his signature at the bottom of the page. He lazily hands the clipboard back to Fynn, who leaves without another word. 

Louis really doesn't care much for the junior advisor, he seems to forget his place more often than not. He'll make sure Zayn has a word with him. Even though Zayn is technically only Louis' valet, yet he holds more power than Fynn, mostly because Louis says so. But he isn't afraid of reminding Fynn who has the power. 

Louis sighs in dismay. Yet another choice he has to make is whether he should renounce the throne or not. He isn't sure he can handle everything that comes with being King. His father left him completely unprepared to be a politician and after only three days he feels ready to throw in the towel. And he hasn't even actually done everything the job entails. How is he meant to even sleep when they start to incorporate the outside politics of everything. Louis doesn't think he can handle it. 

 

Of course, renouncing the throne also means he'll be giving up basically everything he's ever known since childhood. His cousin Colin would take the throne if Louis gave it up. Colin is a total wanker, and has never been quiet about wanting Louis to give him the throne. Louis wouldn't be able to live through all the family gatherings with Colin gloating about how great of a King he is for the rest of his life. Maybe, just maybe it would be bearable if Louis lived in Avelan with someone, hopefully Harry, doing something he truly cared about. He's never been all that interested in the prestige and glory of the crown. It always seemed like an empty life. And seeing his father give literally everything to the crown, only to die young, why should Louis bother doing the same? Shouldn't he live his life the way he truly wants?

Louis stands up and looks out the window of his father's old study. He can barely see over the tops of the trees, and faraway in the distance can make out the skyline of Avelan. Is it really worth it? 

-

"Your Majesty, I need you to look these over and approve them" Valiel pushes more papers at Louis. 

"What did I say about business during meals?" Louis takes another bite of eggs. 

"I'm sorry, Sir. I know you don't want to be bothered, but these are time sensitive and must be sent out today."

"Then why weren't they given to me before now?" Louis takes the papers, nothing bothering to hide his annoyance anymore and reads over them. 

"My deepest apologies, Sir. With all the preparations that must be made for you taking the throne, things have been lost in the shuffle."

"See to it that it doesn't happen again," Louis gives Valiel a sharp look. 

"I will do my best, Sir." 

"Good," Louis nods curtly as he hands the documents back. Valiel bows his head reverently and leaves.

Louis sighs loudly, letting his cutlery clatter against the table, and puts his head in his hands. He hates this. There’s no way he can do this shit for the rest of his life. There's just so much to do, and seemingly every decision from cracks in roads getting fixed to the budget for their military lands in front of him. Everything lands on his fucking shoulders, and while he hasn't made any super important decisions since taking the throne, he will eventually have to, and just the thought of doing something stupid like accidentally starting a war paralyzes him with fear. 

"You don't have to be so hard on him, you know," Zayn speaks up finally. 

Louis lets out a loud frustrated shout and pushes himself away from the table and takes a few strides towards the door. "I need to get away from here. I can't do this."

"You can do this. You can’t just abandon your people.” 

"What do you know?!" Louis whirls around to face his friend. "You're not the one who's been shouldered with the responsibility of an entire species!"

"Maybe not, but I know you. I know that you're strong and incredibly intelligent, and can make it through this."

"I already feel like I'm fucking drowning and it's barely been a week! I should just give my cousin the crown!"

"You're going to renounce the throne?" a voice says from behind Louis. Louis slowly turns around to see Harry surrounded by three large guards. 

"Sorry, Your Majesty." one of the guards says. "We told him he wouldn't be able to speak to you directly, but he insisted you knew him."

Louis nods numbly. 

"You may go," Zayn orders. "Leave the boy." 

The guards look at each other hesitantly, but shuffle out of the room when Louis doesn't argue with Zayn's command.

"What are you doing here?" Zayn asks. 

Harry plays with his fingers nervously. "I uh, came to apologize to Louis."

"Do you think he wants-"

"Zayn, that's enough," Louis cuts him off. 

"But-"

"Leave," Louis grits out. "I can talk to Harry myself."

"Yes, Sir." Zayn bows his head as a formality and leaves the room, giving Harry a look that could kill. 

"So..." Harry says quietly. 

"You're here," Louis says, completely dumbfounded.

"Yeah. I am. I hope that's okay."

“Of course," Louis answers sincerely.

The two boys stare at each other in silence. 

"I don't even know where to start," Harry blurts out. "I'm an idiot for not being there for you. I shouldn't have freaked out like I did."

"I deserved it." Louis grimaces

"No, you didn't," Harry says vehemently, taking a few steps towards Louis. "I mean at first I thought you were just a selfish prick for keeping such a huge secret from me. But it makes sense now."

"I lied to you! How can you be okay with that?" Louis throws his arms up in frustration.

"You had a good reason."

"Because my father was a paranoid man, does not count as a good reason," Louis huffs and crosses his arms. 

"He just wanted to keep you safe, like any parent would." 

"Well he did a bang up job, keeping me hidden away from the world. But now I'm stuck doing a job I'm not fucking qualified for and if I quit, I can't get ever take it back."

"So don't give it up." Harry closes the distance between him and Louis. 

"It's not that simple, Harry." Louis throws his arms up again.

"Why?" 

"There are so many people that count on me now, and I can't... I can't fail them," Louis answers reluctantly. 

"That won't happen,” Harry reassures him.

“How can you be so sure?"

"Because I believe in you. And so does everyone in Faefield." Harry reaches out for Louis, but the other boy flinches away. 

"You couldn't possibly know that." Louis rolls his eyes. 

"If they know you even a fraction as much as I do, then your subjects believe in you."

"That doesn't make any sense."

“I mean that just because you don't have faith in yourself, doesn't mean others don't."

Louis closes his eyes and shakes his head fiercely. "No, I can't"

"Louis, listen to me," Harry grabs both of Louis' biceps tightly. "You are amazing and you will be an even more amazing King."

"I won't,' Louis says to the floor.

"That's such bullshit." 

Louis locks eyes with Harry and sees an intensity in them  
he's never seen before. 

"You will be such a good leader for your people. And you are the only one who doesn't believe in yourself, so how can you ask your subjects to believe in you. You are truly the most incredible person I've ever met before. And the fact that you can't see that right now, kills me. I let you think that I hated you. I was just scared at first, but I'm not anymore. I love you, and want to be with you wings and all." Harry stops to catch his breath. 

Louis stares at him in awe. There are about a million things flying around his mind right now. Louis had given up hope that Harry would ever forgive him. Sure it had only been a couple of weeks since Harry discovered the truth, but Louis was just so certain that Harry would never, ever speak to him again. And he was absolutely positive that Harry would blame him for everything. He's spent so much time in his own head that he didn't consider Harry might actually be okay with the real Louis. He's not sure if this is actually just a crazy dream.

"This isn't a dream." Harry says soothingly. 

"I didn't mean to say that out loud." Louis rests his hands and head on Harry's chest.

"Well, it's true," Harry kisses the top of Louis' head. "This is real. I'm really here. and I know that you can be an amazing King."

"I still don't totally believe you."

"We have plenty of time to work on that."

“Promise?” Louis looks up at Harry. 

“Promise,” Harry replies with a soft smile.

 

-

 

Louis fiddles with one of the numerous medals on the military uniform he is required to wear for his Coronation today. 

"Zayn, I don't know if I can do this."

"You've already been King for a couple of months. This just makes your ascension to the throne official." Zayn says reassuringly as he swats Louis' hand away from the medal.

"All of this doesn't seem necessary."

"Well it's tradition. So you're just going to have to suck it up." Zayn picks off a small piece of fuzz from Louis' shoulder. 

"Couldn't I just change it?" Louis whines.

"Oh please, everyone in all of Avelan will be watching this today. Besides, you love being the center of attention."

"Where's Harry?" Louis can't believe his boyfriend isn't helping him get ready. 

"Niall is helping him get ready for the Coronation."

"He's not the one getting coronated today, why does he need help getting ready?" Louis asks incredulously.

"Because this is first appearance and your fiance-to-be, and he's under just as much scrutiny as you, if not more."

"We've only been together for a couple months. He is not my fiance-to-be," Louis harrumphs.

"Everyone around you knows it’s just a matter of time."

Louis doesn't bother responding, because Zayn is right on both accounts. Eventually Louis will propose, or maybe Harry will. Which isn't to say that marriage hasn't already been a topic of discussion between Harry and him. Louis is absolutely certain that Harry is it for him, and vice versa. They'll obviously need a surrogate for their children, but that's still a long way down the road; they need to get married before kids. They both want the wedding to be in just a couple years, but Louis figures he needs to be officially coronated before getting engaged. 

"Alrighty you're all done," Zayn says loudly, pulling Louis out of his thoughts. 

Louis looks in the mirror and takes a deep breath. "Ready Zaynie?"

"It's your big day. I'm totally fine."

"Yes, well. I was thinking, maybe you need a promotion from Valet to Advisor?"

"What?" Zayn’s eyes widen in shock.

"I want you to be my Advisor. There's nobody I trust more than you."

"Seriously?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have been able to get through these past few months without you, and you deserve the recognition."

Zayn wraps his arms around Louis's neck for a hug. "Thank you, thank you," he chatters in Louis' ear. 

"You've earned it." Louis smiles. 

Zayn pulls away and takes a few steps back. 

"The disastrous duo, in charge of Faefield. You sure we won’t burn it to the ground?"

"We'll just have to try our best not to won't we?"

"Fair," Zayn laughs. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." 

\---

Louis waits outside the church door. Zayn will give him the cue for him to begin his walk down the aisle where the throne waits, as well as a priestess ready to anoint him. He feels a bead of sweat begin to run down his face, and his legs begin to shake uncontrollably. He takes a few deep breaths and wipes away the sweat. He just wants to get this over with at this point. 

It’s not long until Zayn gives him the cue to start walking, after not much waiting, and he does so gratefully. All eyes are on him as he walks slowly down the aisle. He wants to simply run to the end, but that would be greatly frowned upon. It takes what seems like forever to actually get to the altar. Louis spots Harry sitting in the front row and can't help but smile widely at the curly haired boy, who smiles back. Niall and Liam are seated next to him as well, and he has to fight the urge to wave, since that isn't seen as acceptable for this ceremony, After this is all done, Louis just wants to go back home and spend the rest of the day cuddling Harry. 

When Louis finally arrives at the altar he bows from his waist before stepping up to the throne. He doesn't sit down yet, that would be against protocol. He turns to face the church full of people watching him and gulps nervously. The Priestess motions for the congregation to sit down and begin the ceremony. 

The Priestess ends up talking for twenty minutes, going on about responsibility and power and whatnot. Louis tries his best to pay attention, but finds it difficult to do. At some point the Priestess to Louis and asks Louis seemingly frivolous questions about doing the best he can, and having the best interest for all of Faefield going forward, as if he could say no. Not that he would, but he just wants to fast forward to the end of this thing. 

Eventually the Priestess holds out the Scepter, which every King has held before him. Louis’ hand shakes as he takes it. It's much lighter than he was expecting. A young boy walks into Louis' line of sight, holding a red velvet pillow, with the ceremonial crown sat directly in the middle of it. 

Louis holds his breath as the crown is taken from the pillow and slowly moves over his head. Before it can be nestled in its proper place a shout rings through the church.

“Stop!" 

The music abruptly stops and every head turns to see the person responsible for the disruption.

Louis’ cousin Colin is the only person standing in the sea of pews. 

The Priestess lifts the crown away from Louis’ head. “What is the meaning of this?” 

“He doesn’t deserve the crown!” 

“Are you serious right now?!?!” Zayn snaps, standing up quickly.

“He’s not fit to rule Fefield!” 

“Well I’m not the one throwing a tantrum at the most publicly broadcasted event of the decade,” Louis chimes in.

“You know nothing about how to rule a kingdom.” Colin snarls. “I’ve spent my entire life watching you grow up, pulling pranks, and generally acting like an idiot. Your father never gave you any responsibility! I was meant to rule once he died!” 

Louis clenches his jaw. “That is utterly absurd.” 

“Fynn promised me that once he got your father out of the way you’d be next!” Colin points at Fynn sitting just a few rows back. 

Most of the guests let out a loud gasp at this information.

“Did you just admit to killing my father?” Louis asks in an eerily calm voice. 

It's only then that Colin realizes his mistake. "No, no of course not."

"You wanted the throne so badly that you were willing to kill my father and then me." Louis says in utter disbelief as he strides towards his cousin in the third pew. "How could you be so stupid as to reveal your plan so soon after? You should have kept quiet and waited until after my coronation, not during it. How stupid can you be? You have made things much easier for me though so I do thank you for that. And as your King, I hereby place you under arrest for treason. Both of you will be punished accordingly for your crimes." 

Colin stupidly attempts to run down the main aisle. The guards easily tackle him to the ground, Colin shouting obscenities as he's dragged from the building. Fynn flies up towards one of the high glass windows, but finds himself immobilized in the air when he's only a few feet away from freedom. 

Louis spins around and walks back up to the throne. He watches as Colin and Fynn are carried away, feeling no remorse and planning some sort of punishment fit for those who kill a King. As soon as they are escorted out of the church, Louis turns to the Priestess.

"Shall we continue?" he asks.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the Priestess replies as she returns to her place. 

Louis looks out into the crowd of people and feels calm as the crown is placed on his head and he sits on his throne for the first time.

Applause erupts throughout the church, celebrating their newly crowned King. 

\---

"You were absolutely brilliant up there," Harry whispers. 

"Thank you, darling, but I didn't really do much of anything," Louis takes a swig of wine.

The Coronation Ball is the truly spectacular event of the day. Everyone gets to enjoy fabulous food, dancing, and of course lots and lots of alcohol. The night is nearly at a close, most people have left for the evening. There are still some stragglers on the dance floor, including Liam, Niall, and Zayn. Louis and Harry have been watching them for the past thirty minutes. 

Louis is on drink three or four, or maybe even five. He’s not really sure, he’s completely lost track. After Colin so rudely interrupted his big day he feels as if he deserves to get a bit drunk. At least he was able to find who was responsible for his father's death. 

"You were, like, so brave though," Harry hiccups. Harry is nearly done with his third drink for the night. 

"You're such a lightweight," Louis replies fondly.

"Alcohol is nice." Harry rests his head on Louis’ shoulder. 

“It is,” Louis chuckles.

“‘M glad we’re back together. It was terrible being without you.”

“What was the worst bit?” Louis begins to play with Harry’s hair.

“Sleeping,” Harry pouts.

“Really? Not the bits when we’re awake?! I’m offended!”

“Love cuddling with you.” Harry murmurs.

“Well I suppose that’s a good enough reason. I quite like cuddling with you too.”

“Really?” Harry looks up at Louis with a wonderfully dopey grin.

“Really,” Louis nods. 

“Wow,” Harry says with drunken amazement. “Can’t believe we get to cuddle together for the rest of our lives. I’m so lucky to have you in my life.”

“No, I’m the lucky one,” Louis replies. He leans down and kisses Harry softly, grateful he gets to spend his life with Harry by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!!! Come talk to me on tumblr @hogwartzlou if you want! Kudos and Comments always greay appreciated!!!


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